Gov. Ralph Northam and the president of the University of Virginia committed to changing UVA Health System鈥檚 collections practices a day after Kaiser Health News detailed its aggressive and widespread pursuit of former patients for unpaid medical bills.
At the same time, the health system announced the departure of CEO Pamela Sutton-Wallace, who will leave in November to join New York-Presbyterian Hospital as a senior vice president.
Her exit 鈥渋s in no way related鈥 to the billing and collections problems, James Ryan, UVA鈥檚 president, said in a message to employees Tuesday.
UVA sued former patients for unpaid bills more than 36,000 times over six years, seeking repayment of over $106 million and often pushing families into onerous payment plans or bankruptcy, according to KHN鈥檚 investigation, published with .
Both Ryan and Northam expressed ignorance about UVA practices that were an open secret in Charlottesville, with hundreds of medical lawsuits often filed in a week.
Northam 鈥渨as only just made aware of these practices,鈥 said spokeswoman Alena Yarmosky, adding that he 鈥渋s not involved鈥 in day-to-day university operations.
Northam, a pediatric neurologist who oversees UVA鈥檚 board and often speaks about the need for affordable health care, said he is 鈥渁bsolutely concerned鈥 about what the health system has been doing.
鈥淚 am glad to hear that UVA Health System is in the process of changing their policies and practices,鈥 Northam said Tuesday in a prepared statement. He declined to offer remedies or agree to an interview.
Ryan said in a tweet late Monday that he had asked Sutton-Wallace last month to look into collection and litigation practices. KHN informed UVA of its findings Aug. 1.
Fixing the problem 鈥渋s complicated,鈥 in part because 鈥渨e are legally obligated as a state agency to collect debts,鈥 he said. 鈥淏ut we have discretion within those legal constraints to make our system more generous and more humane.鈥
Ryan and Sutton-Wallace also declined interview requests through spokesmen.
The health system is making a 鈥渃omprehensive review鈥 of its indigent care and financial assistance policies and will announce changes by the end of the week, said spokesman Eric Swensen.
鈥淚 learned about our aggressive billing and collection practices within the medical center a little over a month ago,鈥 Ryan said in his tweet. 鈥淧art of striving to be both a great and good university is honestly facing problems you encounter and doing what you can to address them.鈥
The departure of Sutton-Wallace, named CEO five years ago, leaves the prestigious medical system with two top vacancies. Richard Shannon, executive vice president for health affairs, left in May.
UVA Health System, which is taxpayer-supported and state-funded, is the latest medical center to face withering scrutiny over patient collections as insurance coverage continues to leave consumers financially vulnerable 鈥 despite passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010.
High-deductible health plans, unaffordable premiums, short-term insurance that doesn鈥檛 cover preexisting illness and narrow provider networks all expose patients to unexpected bills of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars.
In recent months, journalists and academics have exposed collections practices in , and and at . A top federal health care regulator made a pointed reference to the coverage in a speech to hospital executives Tuesday.
鈥淲e are learning the lengths to which certain not-for-profit hospitals go to collect the full list price from uninsured patients,鈥 Medicare administrator Seema Verma said in a speech before members of the American Hospital Association. 鈥淭hese hospitals are referring patients to debt collectors, garnishing wages, placing liens on property and even suing patients into bankruptcy.鈥
Phil Galewitz and Emmarie Huetteman contributed to this report.
