Solidarity Healthshare President and Co-Founder Chris Faddis joins Bob Sansevere on The BS Show to discuss a new initiative to provide medical debt forgiveness in LA County and how other initiatives could be made to help combat rising medical costs in the U.S.

Bob Sansevere (00:00):

We are joined by Christopher Faddis, co-founder and president of the nonprofit Healthcare Sharing Ministry Solidarity Health Share, which is an ethical, affordable alternative to traditional health insurance and is faithful to the moral teachings of the Catholic Church. Now, Chris, I got to ask you about this. There is a move in LA County. It’s launching a very ambitious plan to tackle medical debt and hospitals aren’t crazy about it. We’re talking about a $2.9 billion problem. A couple of things about it. It’s LA County, and they’re going to go, they want to forgive debt and they want to do things to help. And it’s great that they want to help people out, but can they pull this off? Are they asking them to just eliminate and erase the debt? Is LA County going to pay for the debt? Where’s the money coming from? And could this really launch something throughout the country if it’s successful? I have my doubts. I don’t know where the money’s coming from.

Chris Faddis (00:57):

Yeah, it’s an interesting, it’s kind of odd coming from a county. I mean, this doesn’t seem like the right jurisdiction for this. Now, medical debt, forgiveness kind of campaigns have been happening for years where you’ll get a group of churches or a group of organizations do that. Dave Ramsey’s group does that once a year. They do a big medical debt thing where they go buy a bulk of debt from a collector and then they’re able to send letters saying your debt’s been forgiven. Right? So that’s a common thing. It’s a practice. It happens every so often and it’s a neat thing. But this is interesting because they’re talking about trying to track medical debt, the collection practices of hospital systems, and then potentially do some debt forgiveness for the lowest income folks. And I guess they had in 2022, they had 785,000 residents burdened with medical debt, and so they’re trying to solve the problem.

(01:53):

But yeah, I guess that’s the question, right? First off, where do they get the money from? It seems like LA County has a lot of financial issues right now, and maybe they’ve got some way to do it, but yeah, if they’re able to do that, I mean, I guess that’s a good thing. I think we have a larger question about who should be handling this and what we should be doing with our hospitals to deal with their collection practices and the predatory nature and how they bill, because we all know the jig is up and they know, we all know that the cost of care and what they actually need to make on the care is not what they bill. And so most of this debt is fluff anyway. Yes. And so when they say they’re going to do it, what did they say in LA County? Like 2.9 billion debt? Yes.

Bob Sansevere (02:36):

2.9 billion.

Chris Faddis (02:37):

Yep. I mean, that’s going to come down to a hundred million probably, right? It’s going to be pennies on the dollar. And in reality is it should have been pennies on the dollar in the first place. And actually probably those people might’ve felt like they could pay the debt if they had known it was so much lower. So we’ve got to solve that problem, otherwise we’re just going to keep doing this where we keep stepping in. And then who wins? It’s the hospitals and the credit collectors. It’s not the patients.

Bob Sansevere (03:05):

No, not at all. And what’s interesting is you spend time on Capitol Hill, you do talk to different politicians to try to make things better, not just for solidarity health share, but for healthcare in general. But was there ever a conversation about instead of, because I am not a fan of excusing college debt because my feeling is what about all the kids who paid their way through college or their family paid? They’re not getting any relief from this, but these people that are choosing, you could choose to go to a college that’s not going to put you hundreds of thousands in debt, but you chose to. So to me, why not have done that for healthcare when people are having debt? Because that affects many, many people –

Chris Faddis (03:52):

And everyone,

Bob Sansevere (03:53):

And they didn’t choose to go into debt like that.

Chris Faddis (03:55):

 It’s a much better place to solve the problem or to deal with that problem. The other side of that is, if you look at the student loan piece, it’s another example where the government gets involved. We bloat the cost of everything, and that’s what’s happened. We need to go back to where people had to pay out of pocket and work a nighttime job. You could go to a really good college for $3,000 a year, a semester or a year. And that’s not possible anymore. Even in-State, tuition can be in some states upwards of 30K a year. So it’s just gotten to be out of hand. So when you think about the healthcare side, you’re right, that’s really where we need to solve the problem. But I think we’ve got to solve it at the root, not just by going around forgiving debt. Maybe that’s a good short-term solution because it’s kind of unethical, but really it’s the hospitals that should be writing off the debt and then we should get back to charging with the care really costs, not bankrupting people over our bloated costs that these hospital systems charge.

Bob Sansevere (04:54):

Well, and Solidarity Healthshare, you guys do a really good job. For instance, me, I’m a member, get a bill and I’ve been through this, get a bill, you guys are prompt paying it, but then the provider comes back and says, well, we want more. You are giving a fair, you’re not paying 200 bucks for a box of tissues, nor should you, and I know you do a lot of negotiations, but do you find, is it a hundred percent, is it 50? Where is the percentage of these providers or these healthcare companies that they accept what you are offering and not fight it? Do you find it’s a fight with everyone? Do you have to have a great third party that does it?

Chris Faddis (05:36):

 No. Where is it? Yeah, it’s less than 3%. Less than 3% fight it.

Bob Sansevere (05:41):

Really? Well, I have one of the 3%.

Chris Faddis (05:41):

Yeah. And that’s one of the things that’s hard is you’re in one of those areas where you have a couple systems that sort of control everything. And unfortunately, they’re both in there. So in certain areas it may feel like more than 3%, but over of our total bills, yeah, it’s 3%.

Bob Sansevere (06:00):

That’s really encouraging to hear.

Chris Faddis (06:01):

Yeah. And again, sometimes it’s a lot because it’s one hospital system that someone has to go to, we’ve gotten a lot better also on the front end of being able to get in touch with them ahead of time and get them, especially if it’s something we know is going to be going on like a surgery or someone has cancer and we can do what’s called single case agreements with them on behalf of the member. And we’re able to then stave off all of those issues, right? Because we’ve agreed. They’ve agreed, they bill us directly. It just really streamlines the process. So we have multiple ways to do it, but on the opportunities where we just share the bill and decide on the price, it’s only 3% that actually come back and fight it.

Bob Sansevere (06:42):

Now, I know you’ve touched on this before, but for instance, if you know are having a surgery coming up, whatever it is, and you schedule it, you are willing to work with people to do it in a different state that’s more accommodating.

Chris Faddis (06:56):

We find that less and less members are up for that, but we are definitely willing to do that. So we’ve had folks go to, there’s a certain gynecological surgery that we have a woman in Southern California that does a really great job. They’ve negotiated the rates at their hospital for the surgical side, and people fly there all the time and do that surgery, and it really works well. So it’s one of the things we’ll work with people on if they’re open to it. And again, it’s rare just because we can normally find something reasonable in your state. But we had a family last year for a pediatric case, and pediatric is a little harder for surgeries. And they went up to Vail, they were in Denver, they went up to Vail for a pediatric orthopedic surgery and they had an incredible experience. And the doctor was, I mean, I wish I remembered the numbers, but it was a significant discount. I mean it, I want to say a 10th of what they were going to charge at a hospital and they got to, to go to Vail. It’s not like a big deal to go to Vail. I think most of us want to go to Vail, right?

(08:00):

Yeah. So we’ve got a lot of ways to do that. And definitely some of the travel is an option.

Bob Sansevere (08:10):

Well, I’ve talked to Dr. Oertle, your Chief Medical Officer and also a co-founder with you. And he was saying in Minnesota, there’s a group now that you can go to and they deal directly with Solidarity. And you’re doing a great job with expanding that type of network too, to get so that you don’t ever have to get the bill.

Chris Faddis (08:28):

You can go to the Alpha Clinic there in Minnesota. And yeah, they’re directly working with us, and I think they do. They have several providers and yeah, it’s great. It’s really great to work directly with folks like that.

Bob Sansevere (08:40):

Well, and I think that, I mean, for people that are looking for that alternative to traditional healthcare, it’s a great alternative because you are doing so much. I mean, to me, for me personally, I’ve not gone to the Alpha Care, but I love the fact that I can pick up the phone. I mean, you don’t call it telehealth, but you have your own version of that. And it’s great because you get a doctor, and I mean obviously it’s not going to be, if it’s something very serious, you go to a hospital, but they will, if you think you have strep throat, you give ’em the symptoms. And if they’re agreeable, they’re going to, because not giving narcotics, they’re going to talk to you about getting you an antibiotic and you’re saving. I mean, now I think a doctor’s visit at Minnesota could be over 600 bucks just to show up. It’s gone up ridiculously –

Chris Faddis (09:29):

Unbelievable.

Bob Sansevere (09:29):

And here, I mean, there’s no charge at all to you. Solidarity health sharing takes care of it, but it’s just a great alternative. And I mean, I’m a big fan of that. That’s just terrific.

Chris Faddis (09:41):

Yeah. Well, and it’s a great opportunity. It’s great, especially when you’re just not sure, is this just a cold? Is this just whatever? And just be able to call the telehealth and look, we’ve had plenty of those calls where they’ve said, yeah, this is probably just this. Let’s prescribe you this medication. But then I’ve had plenty of calls with my kids where they’ve said, I really feel more comfortable if you went to the urgent care, if you went to a doctor.

Bob Sansevere (10:03):

And they’re going to be honest with

Chris Faddis (10:04):

You about it, and they’re going to be honest with you. They know what they don’t know. They know what they can and cannot treat. And I think that’s everyone’s fear. What if they’re wrong? Well, if they’re wrong, you’ll know because you’ll have more symptoms when you go the doctor. But they do such a great job, and it is, it’s such a great way to keep the cost down. It’s a great way. I mean, honestly, the cost. None of us like going the doctor’s office. So I love that I don’t have to go very often. And yeah, it’s a really great service and we love that. And that again, Bob, as you said, is part of every membership in Solidarity.

Bob Sansevere (10:37):

Yes, it is. Terrific. And if you want more information about that or about anything, go to solidarityhealthshare.org and the numbers there. Everything is there and you, you’re not going to be put into a maze. You’re going to get a person very quickly. It’s probably one of the quickest companies I’ve ever called where a real person comes on the line and I don’t have to hit a bunch of buttons, which I appreciate because then my blood pressure goes up and I need to get a prescription for something for that. All right, Chris Faddis, president co-founder of Solidarity, HealthShare solidarityhealthshare.org. Take a quick break. The BS Show will be right back.

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Solidarity HealthShare is a non-profit healthcare sharing ministry rooted in the teachings of the Catholic Church. Established in 2016, we operate on the Catholic principles of solidarity and subsidiarity, in accordance with the Church’s commitment to promoting life-affirming, faith-based healthcare.

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