Paying medical debt in Taos ‘very important’

Group annually pays off some outstanding Holy Cross bills; in 2022, $2M was covered

TAOS — In the coldest and darkest days of the year, a group of church congregants, medical workers and good Samaritans have made it a tradition to bring some sunshine into the lives of those in need.

“We purchased over $2 million in debt in 2022,” an amount that paid off outstanding medical debt for 1,362 people, said Valerie Holsinger, a medical coder who works at Taos Clinic for Children and Youth.

Holsinger joined the Taos Medical Debt Relief Project after its founder, the Rev. Pamela Shepherd, died in October 2021. Holsinger is a member of the church Shepherd founded, Taos United Church of Christ, where many of the other Samaritans involved in the project attend.

“I remember last year, my phone number was the contact. I could tell it was an elderly lady calling, and she was sobbing and said we had no idea how much it meant,” Holsinger said. “It’s very important.”

The program, which launched in 2018 with donations totaling $1,500, is available to Taos County residents who owe money to Holy Cross Medical Center. The project pays 8 cents on the dollar for the debt it buys from the hospital, which randomly selects eligible debt holders.

“It’s a random selection chosen by the hospital,” Holsinger said. “They run a computer program to choose the debt holders.”

In 2018 the program raised $1,500, and the project has accelerated its fundraising over the years, raising over $7,000 in 2020 to pay off the medical debt of 80 people. Last year it raised over $63,000.

“We will cover balances between $500 and $10,000 this year,” Holsinger said. “That’s the debt we would be covering. It will clear a lot of the debt.”

Connie Prewitt, the hospital’s chief financial officer, will tally the donations from the past year this week.

“We normally start this toward the end of the year, and it happens all at once,” Holsinger said. “We started around the end of November, but the CFO wanted to delay a little until she updated the financial information.”

Americans are swimming in debt, with U.S. household debt reaching more than $15 trillion in 2021, according to the Federal Reserve. According to affordablehealthinsurance.com, 56% of American adults owe medical debt, 1 in 4 of whom owe more than $10,000. Nearly half of all medical debt in the United States stems from hospital visits that began in an emergency department.

Shepherd got the idea for the debt relief project from a

New York Times article about a megachurch in Texas that had purchased the debt of its members. She worked on the idea with then-CEO Bill Patten and faith leaders in the Taos area.

Those selected to have their debt cleared will receive a letter in the mail signed by community leaders, many of whom represent the local faith community, which collects donations for the program.