By Staff Reporter |
Governor Katie Hobbs stands to enjoy a major public relations benefit from her newly-announced $30 million medical debt relief program.
Under the contract, the nonprofit behind the program which began earlier this month, RIP Medical Debt (RMD), must give credit to Hobbs whenever describing projects or programs within the program. That credit includes the inclusion of logos or insignia approved by the governor on all communications, like: flyers, advertisements, and press releases.
The contract also requires RMD to have all other communications, including the letter template notifying recipients of medical debt absolution, to not only be approved by Hobbs’ office, but to double as a vessel for the governor to conduct desired content and data harvesting.
Under the contract, RMD’s notification letters must ask recipients to share their medical debt stories and any other pertinent information. Those stories — along with “related insights” gleaned from recipients by RMD’s resident anthropologist — would then be passed on to the governor’s office.
“The letters transmitted by Contractor also include a request for Program recipients to share their stories,” stated the contract. “Patient stories and related insights shall be shared with the Governor’s Office on a regular basis.”
It is unclear as to what the governor intends on using those stories and related insights, especially whether they will play a role down the road in encouraging voter turnout or ginning up support for the governor’s reelection in 2026.
The contract also enables the governor to obtain certain information from the program: the names of medical providers who have and haven’t agreed to participate; data analysis of program impacts on factors like ZIP code, race/ethnicity, patient/guarantor insurance type, income levels; and other, unspecified data reports on a regular basis.
Lack of specificity doesn’t just occur in the contract’s provision on all required data reports from RMD. The nonprofit must also submit an annual report containing “qualitative data” and “any other reporting reasonably requested” by Hobbs.
The contract does limit data-gathering to comply with HIPAA requirements.
Arizona Department of Homeland Security (AZDOHS) noted in its conclusion of a security questionnaire on RMD’s qualifications as a vendor — a pre-contract protocol — that RMD didn’t offer their department proof of certain requested information security controls. Rather, RMD offered a generic response unrelated to questions posed by AZDOHS.
“Responses appear to be copy-pasted from their information security policies, and some do not actually address the controls,” stated AZDOHS.
Ultimately, AZDOHS passed RMD as a qualified vendor, noting that every control had a policy reference and eight information security policies were provided.
In addition to monitoring and compliance, the contract requires RMD to develop a number of distinct plans detailing program administration, budgeting and financial management, marketing and outreach to recruit medical provider participation, and performance measurement.
The program received an initial $20 million using federal COVID-19 relief funds, with the contract allowing for another $10 million in federal relief funds at Hobbs’ discretion. The millions are estimated to cover up to $2 billion in medical debt.
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