Help relieve medical debt of Taos Valley families

Faith communities and private donors unburden hundreds

Three Taos faith communities started the Taos Medical Debt Relief program in 2018 to raise money to purchase and cancel uncollectible medical debt from Holy Cross Medical Center.

That year faith communities raised $1,500, which allowed them to “purchase” over $80,000 of medical debt at three cents on the dollar. A total of 80 Taos families had their medical debt canceled.

The program expanded in 2019 to include nine faith communities and eight individual donors. Their joint efforts raised $7,250, which was used to “purchase” $251,778 of medical debt.

“Imagine the relief felt by the 267 Taos families who received a letter from Taos Medical Debt Relief, a letter which included a Holy Cross Hospital invoice marked paid in full,” said a statement from the Taos Interfaith Group, announcing this year’s effort to raise funds for medical debt forgiveness.

In 2020, the Taos Interfaith Group set an ambitious goal of buying and forgiving $1 million of medical debt from Holy Cross Medical Center. “An anonymous donor has provided seed money, and Taos Faith Communities are actively gathering donations for this effort,” said the statement.

“This effort enables Holy Cross Hospital to drop uncollectible debt from their books without resorting to the use of collection agencies and lawyers. The families who receive a paid-in-full invoice from Holy Cross have one of their burdens lifted, allowing them to breathe a sigh of relief,” said organizers of the program in a press release.

If you can help, send a check made out to Taos United Community Church or to Holy Cross Hospital with Medical Debt Relief in the memo line. Any checks made out to Taos UCC will be consolidated and 100 percent will be presented to Holy Cross Hospital.

Send donations to: Taos UCC, P.O. Box 1084, Taos, NM 87571.

Memo line: Taos Medical Debt Relief.

For more information, contact Rev. Pam Shepherd at taosucc@ gmail.com or (575) 770-4894; or Fr. Mike Olsen at revmolsen@ gmail.com or (625) 512-8270.