A New York Times article earlier this year revealed that ECMC had fought to prevent a bankrupt cancer survivor inundated by medical bills from discharging her loan debt, arguing that because she was younger, she was more likely to survive her pancreatic cancer.
In another case, ECMC fought in court to garnish the Social Security payments of a woman who had already paid off her student loans in full. The nonprofit was eventually sanctioned by a judge for "abusing the bankruptcy process," the Times reported.
Bloomberg News highlighted the salaries ECMC paid its top debt collectors — one made $454,000 in the same year the nonprofit's CEO took home $1.1 million. Both salaries were paid for with taxpayer money, the article said.