Becker's Hospital Review

14 CFO / FINANCE VCU Health overhauls debt collection practices By Ayla Ellison R ichmond, Va.-based VCU Health is taking several steps to overhaul its collection practices, including halting seizure of patients' wages and removing liens on patients' homes, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch. The moves come after a Kaiser Health News investigation revealed VCU Health pursued thousands of patients for overdue bills, filed liens against patients' homes and garnished patients' wages. The system and its physicians filed more than 56,000 debt-collection lawsuits over seven years, ending in 2018. Some of system's collection practices pushed patients into bankruptcy, according to the report. The health system is overhauling its aggressive collection practices. It's can- celing liens against patients' homes, some dating back 30 years, and halting garnishment of wages. "Healthcare needs to be more affordable for patients, and we want to be part of the solution," Melinda Hancock, VCU Health's CFO and chief administrative officer, told the Richmond Times-Dispatch. "We believe that no hospital bill should change the economic status of a family." Another Virginia health system, Charlottesville-based University of Virginia Health System is also changing its collection practices. The health system said it will only seek court judgments against families making more than 400 per- cent of federal poverty guidelines, according to the report. Since the KHN investigation last year, VCU Health and UVA Health Sys- tem have increased discounts for uninsured patients and upped financial assistance. n FTC challenge of Philadelphia hospital merger 'myopic,' AHA says By Alia Paavola T he American Hospital Association is blasting the Federal Trade Commis- sion's challenge of the merger of Jefferson Health and Einstein Healthcare Network, according to the Philadelphia Business Journal. In late February, the FTC announced it would sue to block the merger of the two Philadelphia-based health systems, say- ing it would reduce competition in both Philadelphia and Montgomery counties. The deal has been pending since 2018. But the hospital association, which rep- resents 5,000 hospitals and health systems nationwide, sent a letter to leaders in the House and Senate, arguing the FTC is wrong to challenge the deal. In deciding to block the transaction, the FTC "once again relied on its simplistic, one-dimensional economic model that fails to account for the realities of providing healthcare — particularly in underserved communities," the association wrote in the letter, according to the Journal. Thomas Nickels, the association's exec- utive vice president, said that the mod- el the FTC uses to predict future price effects of hospital transactions is flawed and allows it to side with insurers at the expense of patients. The model fails to acknowledge how the merger can improve healthcare access in poorer communities and ignores the ability of the combined health system to spread costs over a larger patient base, Dr. Nickels argued. "It is time for members of Congress and other policymakers to make clear that the antitrust enforcement in the hospi- tal sector needs to account for all rele- vant factors, not simply the FTC's myopic modeling of speculative future results of contract negotiations between large commercial health insurance companies and hospitals," Dr. Nickels said, according to the Journal. n LifePoint to sell 3 South Carolina hospitals to Prisma By Ayla Ellison B rentwood, Tenn.-based LifePoint Health on March 5 announced an agree- ment to sell three hospitals and a freestanding emergency room in South Car- olina to Greenville, S.C.-based Prisma Health. Under the agreement, Prisma Health-Midlands would acquire KershawHealth, a sin- gle-hospital system based in Camden, S.C., and Providence Health, a two-hospital system based in Columbia, S.C., from LifePoint. "Ensuring that we maintain access to healthcare in South Carolina's rural com- munities has been a priority of my administration, but we've always known that the private sector would be our most important partners in reaching that goal," South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster said in a release. "This proposed acquisi- tion would provide new opportunities to enhance clinical quality and improve access to affordable care for patients in the Midlands and beyond, but it also shows that Prisma Health is committed to the communities it serves, and for that, we should all be grateful." Prisma Health currently comprises 18 hospitals and more than 300 physician prac- tice sites. It was formed in 2019 through the merger of Greenville (S.C.) Health Sys- tem and Columbia, S.C.-based Palmetto Health. n

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