Ms. Scott’s gift will be used beyond debt relief, according to a Dec. 18 Undue Medical Debt news release.
The funds will further the organization’s policy and research initiatives to tackle the upstream, root causes of medical debt. The gift will also allow the organization to build out operational capacity so it can qualify medical debts more quickly and relieve larger amounts of debt. The donation will also fund research into Undue’s model itself to inform how the organization continues to grow, evolve, and best meet the needs of its constituents.
Undue rebranded from RIP Medical Debt in April and broadened its goal. The organization said that although it will continue to relieve medical debt, “its vision for accomplishing that goal has broadened to address root causes through policy and program initiatives.”
Undue has relieved more than $14.8 billion in medical debt since its founding in 2014, but the nonprofit said that given the sheer scale of the problem, much work remains, “especially set against the backdrop of a new federal administration with healthcare priorities that are still coming into focus.”
