In July, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, announced a medical debt relief program involving all 99 eligible hospitals in the state to forgive medical debt for Medicaid beneficiaries dating back to Jan. 1, 2014 . In addition, the program will mitigate medical debt deemed uncollectible for patients whose income is at or below 350% of the federal poverty level, as well as prior medical debt that exceeds 5% of an individual’s annual income. Nine Atrium hospitals in the state are among the participants.

But that program didn’t help many former patients who carried medical debt from previous years. Belk, for example, said his debt was exempt from the governor’s initiative.

Advocate Health announced its new lien release program, saying it will start with the oldest cases first and resolve them individually “over the next few months.” The company warned that the process would take time as it was coordinated with courts in each jurisdiction.

When NBC News previously contacted Atrium Health about Belk’s situation, the company spokesperson issued a statement saying that the health system had used litigation against patients “as a last resort” and that Belk voluntarily filed both the trust deed and the other judgment signed: “and probably on the advice of his lawyer.”

The company statement continued: “As the Southeast’s leading not-for-profit health system, Atrium Health is committed to ensuring access to quality care for everyone in every community we are privileged to serve.” For us, there are no wins, only results in the form of improved health, increasing hope and advancing healing – for all.”