A partnership between a Cañon City church and a New York City nonprofit will wipe out nearly $270,000 in medical debt for people and families in Southwest Colorado.
Ryan McBride, pastor of the Catalyst Church, said the entire project will pay off $2 million in medical debt in 39 counties across Colorado, with a focus on rural parts of the state.
“We know generosity breeds generosity,” McBride said. “So we wanted to help those people feeling the weight and crushing nature of that kind of bondage.”
About four years ago when the Catalyst Church was founded, it received a $20,000 donation from a Wyoming church to help get started. But McBride said Catalyst Church never needed to use that money, and it sat in a bank account.
A few months ago, church officials started thinking about new services it could provide, and it came across a nonprofit called RIP Medical Debt, which purchases then abolishes unpaid debt.
A request for comment from RIP Medical Debt was not immediately returned Monday morning.
But according to the RIP Medical Debt’s website, the nonprofit was started in 2014 by two former debt collections executives who use donations to buy large bundles of medical debt then forgive it with no tax consequences.
Since 2014, $1.3 billion in medical debts have been eradicated, to the benefit of more than 650,000 people and families, the website says.
McBride says that RIP Medical Debt’s process allows a $100 donation to cover $10,000 of debt. Quickly, church officials realized that $20,000 sitting in the bank could expand into covering $2 million of debt.
RIP Medical Debt’s website says it accomplishes this by buying “large portfolios of debt from medical providers and debt sellers on the debt market (for pennies on the dollar) and forgiving it. As little as $1 donated to RIP can alleviate $100 of medical debt. The debt is removed from credit reports and can no longer be collected on.”
Catalyst Church asked the nonprofit to focus on rural Colorado and start with the people and families most in need.
As a result of the effort, about $78,000 will be directed to La Plata County; about $135,000 to Montezuma County; about $56,400 to Archuleta County; and about $1,200 to San Juan County.
McBride said the church will receive a report in the coming weeks with the number of people and families who benefited, but individual names are not disclosed.
“It’s no strings attached,” he said.
According to RIP Medical Debt’s website, the nonprofit sends “forgiveness notices” to the benefiting families and individuals, and then helps repair credit reports.
jromeo@durangoherald.com