City of Pittsburgh, Undue Medical Debt partnership to relieve medical debt from 43K residents

By Caitlyn Scott

Click here for updates on this story

    PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania (WTAE) — Over 43,000 Pittsburgh residents will soon receive a notice of eliminated medical debt, thanks to a partnership between the City of Pittsburgh and a national nonprofit organization.

In a release Monday, Councilman Bobby Wilson announced that more than $58 million in medical debt has been abolished for over 43,000 Pittsburgh residents. This comes following a partnership between the city and a nonprofit known as Undue Medical Debt, which was formerly known as RIP Medical Debt.

“I’m very proud that the City of Pittsburgh, in partnership with Undue Medical Debt, has eliminated past-due medical debt for more than 43,000 Pittsburghers,” Wilson said in the release. “With rising healthcare costs, uncertainty around Medicaid, and the recent reversal of the Biden Administration’s efforts to remove medical debt from credit reports, this assistance is more important than ever. No one should be burdened simply because they got sick. Relieving this debt will have a significant impact on the lives of many Pittsburghers.”

The milestone follows legislation that was introduced and passed by Wilson in 2023, which authorized the city to contract with the nonprofit to identify and erase qualifying medical debt held by Pittsburghers.

According to the release, those eligible for the debt relief must be residents of the City of Pittsburgh. They must also meet at least one of the following two criteria:

Have a household income between 0% and 400% of the federal poverty level Have medical debt that equals 5% or more of their annual income The release said that residents who qualify will automatically receive a branded letter from Undue Medical Debt identifying which of their medical debt(s) have been forgiven.

Letters will begin arriving this week.

In addition, the release stated that the medical debt relief is “source-based and cannot be requested,” adding that “there was no application process” for relief.

To learn more about Undue Medical Debt, visit their website here: Undue Medical Debt

Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.