LA Healthcare Award Honorees Unite to Shine the Light on Medical Debt
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Two 2025 Los Angeles Healthcare Awards honorees—HBO’s The Pitt and Undue Medical Debt—have since joined forces to spotlight the national medical debt crisis, including co-authoring a recent article in STATNews.com.
At the November 2025 Los Angeles Healthcare Awards, The Pitt, represented by executive producer Dr. Joe Sachs, received the Shine the Light Media Award, while Undue Medical Debt, represented by President and CEO Allison Sesso, was honored with the Community Impact Award. Their introduction at the event has since evolved into a collaboration aimed at elevating public awareness of medical debt and its consequences.
In a STATNews.com article co-written by Sesso and Sachs, the two leaders examine how storytelling and healthcare advocacy can intersect to confront one of the most persistent challenges facing patients. The article highlights the power of television to humanize complex policy issues and calls attention to the structural realities that leave millions of Americans burdened by medical debt.
For LACMA, the issue is not abstract. In 2024, LACMA’s Board of Directors approved a $10,000 donation to Undue Medical Debt. That contribution resulted in the elimination of $1 million in medical debt for local patients, directly alleviating financial strain for families across Los Angeles County.
Undue’s research with physicians and patients further underscores the clinical implications of medical debt. When financial burdens accumulate, treatment plans are disrupted. Appointments are delayed or canceled. Pills are split, medications are rationed, and follow-up care is postponed. Physicians report that medical debt can strain the therapeutic relationship, as patients hesitate to seek needed care or disclose financial distress. The result is predictable: outcomes worsen when access to care is compromised by financial hardship.
Solutions to the tangled reality of the U.S. healthcare system remain elusive, and federal political consensus has been difficult to achieve. Yet lifting up the stories of patients caught in this system can reduce isolation and create space for meaningful dialogue. By bringing medical debt into mainstream culture, The Pitt helps center the human impact behind the policy debate.
The collaboration between The Pitt and Undue Medical Debt reflects the broader purpose of the Los Angeles Healthcare Awards: convening leaders across medicine, advocacy, philanthropy, and media to catalyze change. A connection made in Los Angeles is now contributing to a national conversation about dignity, access, and the financial realities that shape patient care.
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