Talk:Undue Medical Debt

Request to add Undue Medical Debt’s CEO Time100 news & Updated Information on Medical Debt Study

Hello,

I’d like to suggest some additions to Undue Medical Debt’s page.  

Could we update the statistics on debt relief in the last sentence of the first paragraph on the existing page? See updated sentence below:  

As of December 2025, the charity claims to have relieved debts for over 15.2 million people, totaling over $23.3 billion.  

The TIME100 information could go under a new “Awards” section. See the suggested text below:  

Awards

In 2025, TIME recognized Undue Medical Debt’s CEO and president Allison Sesso on the TIME100, TIME’s annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world; the TIME100 Health, recognizing the 100 most influential individuals in global health; and the TIME100 Philanthropy list, recognizing singular figures shaping the future of giving.  

Citations:  

Conover, Adam. (April 16, 2025). “The 100 Most Influential People of 2025: Allison Sesso.” TIME. Retrieved December 5, 2025.  

Mickle, Kelly. (May 8, 2025). “TIME100 Health 2025: Allison Sesso.” TIME. Retrieved December 5, 2025.  

Renzulli, Kerri Anne. (May 20, 2025). “TIME100 Philanthropy 2025: Allison Sesso.” TIME. Retrieved December 5, 2025.

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I’d also like to suggest some additional context under the “Criticisms” section from one of the authors of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) study on the effectiveness of medical debt relief. Find that suggested text below:

Neale Mahoney, Stanford economist and author of the study, acknowledged in November 2024 that the NBER research has limitations: “[W]e are first to admit that our study is not the final word on medical debt relief ... Moreover, Undue Medical Debt has evolved its practices since our 2018–2020 study period.”  

Mahoney noted that more evidence is needed to draw definitive conclusions about the relationship between medical debt relief and mental health.

Prior research has established that when patients have access to financial assistance, they are less likely to delay care and experience harm as a result of extraordinary collection actions. Debt relief is most helpful to patients when it occurs adjacent to the episode of care.

Since the study period, Undue Medical Debt has shifted its model to focus on purchasing debt directly from hospitals and healthcare providers and acquiring “younger” debt. As of May 2024, 67% of the debt the charity abolishes is less than five years old, compared to 5% in 2019.

Citations:  

Adams, Alyce, Raymond Kluender, Neale Mahoney, Jinglin Wang, Francis Wong and Wesley Yin. 2022. "The Impact of Financial Assistance Programs on Health Care Utilization: Evidence from Kaiser Permanente." National Library of Medicine, 4 (3): 389–407. doi:10.1257/aeri.20210515. Retrieved December 8, 2025.  

Mahoney, Neale. (November 25, 2024). “Clarifying the Interpretation and Implications of our Medical Debt Study.” Medium. Retrieved December 8, 2025.

Walker, Lesley. (May 9, 2024). “The Hunt for Lasting Fixes to America’s Medical Debt Crisis.” Tradeoffs. Retrieved December 8, 2025.  

Please let me know whether it’s possible to make these changes. Thank you! ~2025-40327-03 (talk) 20:08, 12 December 2025 (UTC)