RIP Medical Debt seeks to buy, resolve more hospital debt

By TOM MURPHY
AP Health Writer

The CEO of a nonprofit that helps people with medical debt wants to expand the amount of debt her organization buys, especially from hospitals. RIP Medical Debt CEO Allison Sesso also wants to draw more attention to the system that generates the bills. The organization uses donations to buy debt in bulk from hospitals and debt collectors for pennies on the dollar. It mostly targets debt of people with low incomes and then forgives the amounts. The organization says that it has relieved more than $8.5 billion so far. Researchers estimate there is well over $100 billion in collections in the U.S.