How one Long Beach resident’s $2,200 medical bill got erased

Medical debt affects 1 in 9 Los Angeles County residents — almost a million people — according to the county health department. It’s a financial burden Long Beach resident Alexy Cordova learned about at a young age.

When she was 16 years old, Cordova was in a car crash that resulted in multiple surgeries on her spine and intestines. But over the years, her pain kept coming back to the point where she was constantly in the emergency room.

Despite having health insurance, those visits led to medical bills which piled up, including one for $2,200 in 2020.

Getting the relief

For Cordova, who’s now 25, living with that debt was a heavy burden. She wanted to pay it off, but she was young, and with a minimum wage job, it was hard to save and focus on her education at the same time.

“You want to pay this, but you have all these other bills,” Cordova said. “What comes first? Obviously not medical debt. I mean, not to me. I’m going to be honest.”

Many of the bills went into collections. Recently, she paid a repair service to help take care of them — but then she received a letter in the mail. She almost assumed it was another bill, but when she opened it, she realized it was something else entirely.

It was a notice telling her that $2,200 of her debt was being paid off by an L.A. County pilot program, which uses the nonprofit Undue Medical Debt to buy medical debt for pennies on the dollar. Cordova was happy to see it.

Alexy Cordova works as a legal assistant while she pursues a degree in criminal justice.

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Courtesy Alexy Cordova

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“ I definitely felt relieved,” she said. “Knowing that I have a bill really does stress me out, and it adds to everything that I have going on.”

So far, L.A. County’s pilot program has abolished more than $363 million in unpaid medical bills, for 170,000 residents.

You can’t apply for the relief; instead the program works with certain hospitals and healthcare providers to identify debts eligible for the program.

The debt problem

Unpaid medical bills are very common and often out of people’s control.

Certain factors can increase your risk. County public health data shows that visiting an emergency room just once a year makes you twice as likely to face medical debt. It also disproportionally affects lower-income households and Latino and Black patients.

Cordova says her situation happened because she wasn’t getting the right help at those emergency room visits, and doctors weren’t telling her where to go next. She ended up finding a specialist at the recommendation of her mother, a step that finally reduced her pain.

Cordova has learned from her debt experience and has some suggestions: Ask for itemized bills any time you get charged for care, so you can see what you’re being asked to pay for, and negotiate your bill.

“ If you don’t understand a charge, look into it. If you feel like it’s excessive, say something. I didn’t know that when I was younger,” she said.

More medical debt relief is on the way for L.A. County residents. According to an Undue spokesperson, they have about half of the current contract still to spend for the pilot program.