Signal Cleveland is looking for residents whose overdue medical bills were paid for by the City of Cleveland in the last two years.

In 2023, the city put $1.9 million of its pandemic relief dollars toward cancelling medical debt for Clevelanders. The city partnered with a national nonprofit called RIP Medical Debt, which has since been renamed Undue Medical Debt. 

The nonprofit uses that money to buy up bundles of past-due medical bills from local hospitals on the cheap. It doesn’t collect on the debts, essentially erasing the bill.

About one in three Cleveland residents saw at least some debt forgiven in the last two years as a result of the city’s investment, according to the City Council.

In November 2023, Cleveland City Council announced that $33 million in debt for 16,000 residents had been canceled. Council did not identify which hospital sold the debt. 

In February 2024, MetroHealth shared publicly that it worked with Undue Medical Debt to erase nearly $136 million in debt for 133,000 Clevelanders.

Residents do not need to apply for the debt relief program. Instead, the nonprofit sends them a letter informing them that their bills were paid by the city.   

As of December of 2024, council has spent about half of its initial $1.9 million allocation to forgive medical debt. 

Did you receive one of these letters? If so, we’d love to hear from you. Email [email protected] or fill out the form below. Signal Cleveland is not looking to collect personal medical information, but rather stories of how this financial assistance impacted you.