From Bad Debt to Charity Care: A Data-Driven Approach to Medical Debt Forgiveness

A 40-year-old patient with advanced disease went into hiding because of medical debt. Two years earlier, she had a medical encounter and could have qualified for financial assistance – but the system required patients to initiate the process themselves.

"I realized the system could have done better," explains Deepak Goyal, Executive Medical Director at Monument Health. "What if the system could be automated and we could use data to actually make the process better and take a second shot in helping those patients?"

Monument Health brought this to life, building a system-driven process using federal poverty guidelines and propensity to pay to proactively identify patients for full debt forgiveness after accounts reach collections. The results: $24 million in debt forgiven, 6,600 accounts impacted, and approximately 2,000 patients freed from medical debt.

Get Deepak’s perspective on designing version 2.0 of this system and his plea for healthcare leaders to look beyond their line of sight to further improve the patient experience.