Benefits Brokerage Partners to Abolish More Than $2M of Medical Debt

Benefit Commerce Group, an Alera Group Company, announced contributions that alleviated more than $2 million of medical debt, with $1.8 million of abolished debt in Maricopa County. Another $280,000 in medical debt relief was achieved in Colorado, through BCG’s affiliate, Fall River Employee Benefits.

One in three Americans struggles with the weight of medical debt, and BCG and its employees are proud to support medical debt relief to many families in Arizona. In Maricopa County, 1,852 families were recipients of BCG’s donation.

BCG worked directly with the debt-forgiveness nonprofit, RIP Medical Debt, to identify individuals and families with outstanding healthcare-related bills. Founded by two former debt collectors, RIP is able to purchase medical debts for those most in need in bundled portfolios for a fraction of their face value. One dollar donated relieves $100 of medical debt on average. Our contributions are targeted to individuals and families living below 200% of the poverty level, with letters about the debt relief going out to them throughout the year.

“As an employee benefits consulting firm, this is a topic very near and dear to our hearts. We see every day how important healthcare is for all of our communities,” said Scott Wood, Principal and Managing Partner of BCG.  “We are proud to be able to help families who have been struggling with medical debt in our area.  In addition, this contribution perfectly showcases one of our core values of collaboration. Our teams always come together to advance thinking for our clients, strategize new solutions for success, but most importantly to help those in need.”

“This gift in honor of our clients comes straight from the hearts of our employees,” said Chris Hogan, Executive Vice President and Principal of BCG. “Our teams are passionate about giving back directly to the communities in which they live, work and play, especially to families right in our backyard who are in crisis. Retiring medical debt allows us to truly give back and alleviate a worry for many families. We have been overwhelmed by the positive response from our clients, confirming that this was very meaningful to them, too.”

Benefit Commerce Group (BCG), an Alera Group Company, is a progressive and results-driven employee benefits and commercial property & casualty consulting and brokerage firm. We are committed to creating strategies and solutions that make life easier and better for companies and their HR teams by providing the best cost-effective benefits value for employers, employees and families and providing risk management and insurance services to businesses.  We do this through collaboration—with our clients, our own experienced team, and with other Alera Group firms across the nation. Alera Group is the nation’s 17th largest broker, providing powerful solutions in employee benefits, property & casualty, and wealth management for clients across the country. BCG is a four-time honoree on the Inc. 5000 listing of the fastest growing private companies in America.

Since being founded in 2014 by two former debt collectors, RIP Medical Debt has acquired, and abolished, more than $6 billion of oppressive medical debt, helping over 3.5 million individuals get out from under the burden of crushing medical debt.