Specifications include, but are not limited to: Successful vendor shall complete the duties listed below: • Contact local hospitals and hospital systems directly, purchase entire portfolios of debt owed by eligible households, and negotiate with the hospitals and/or third-party debt collectors to cancel that debt. • Determine how much medical debt exists and for whom in order to determine what debt should be addressed first. • Agree never to collect the debt they purchase, only forgive it. • Develop proposals for what debt would be prioritized and for whom based on their experience in other jurisdictions where they have successfully implemented programs, with the goal of prioritizing the State’s most vulnerable residents and those with the highest medical debt burden. • Devise a method to effectively notify individuals of their debt erasure and ensure that recipients of debt relief do not face any adverse tax consequences. • Detail the process they would use to pursue medical debt erasure, the age of the debt, the method by which they intend to obtain debt information from health care providers, the process by which they would negotiate with health care providers and communicate with individuals whose debt has been erased, and the reporting and outcome information that would be provided to OPM. • Submit status updates and a final report on the outcome of the initiative. • Provide information that is easily understandable for participants on steps that can be taken when they face future medical bills, including a list of resources for financial assistance that may be available to reduce such bills. This information should also be made available to the State to use for the benefit of other health care policy initiatives, and for the State’s residents as a whole.
