A not-for-profit organization is convincing hospitals across the country to donate their medical debt. It claims to then provide the patients behind those unpaid bills an array of social supports–help with housing, jobs, food assistance. The so-called charity, called the Center for Consumer Recovery, says its goal is to help get those patients into more stable living situations. Then, once that happens, its vendor, a for-profit debt collector, contacts those patients to try and collect on the bills. It’s unclear how much of this social service work actually takes place, however, because the agencies CCR claimed to work with the most had never heard of it. On top of all this, CCR donates a portion of its collection proceeds to a charity of the hospital’s choice, which could include the hospital’s own foundation. Legal and medical debt experts say the whole operation is ethically questionable and possibly illegal.
