SCAN Group and CareOregon recently partnered with RIP Medical Debt to wipe out $110 million in medical debt, but the payers' CEOs said true relief must come from billing system reforms, Yahoo Finance reported June 14.
"We've normalized the abnormal," SCAN CEO Sachin Jain, MD, told the news outlet. "It is not normal in most countries for medical care to be something that you fear because it will put you in debt from which it's impossible to recover."
Dr. Jain said he is hoping the healthcare system will look more broadly at its billing and collection practices, pricing and transparency and "start to rethink some of that."
"I don't think the industry has paused to look at its own morality … or amorality," Dr. Jain said, according to the report.
CareOregon CEO Eric Hunter told the news outlet that relieving medical debt is not something they will get credit for when the state does the rate setting and it may not lead to membership growth, "but it has a positive impact on the entire population."
The two nonprofit payers announced in December they plan to merge under the name HealthRight Group. The deal is expected to close this year.