Centra names permanent CEO

Lynchburg-based health system Centra has selected interim leader Richard Tugman as its president and CEO, overseeing a health system that serves more than 500,000 patients in Central and Southern Virginia, operating four hospitals, five medical centers and numerous primary care and specialty practices.

Tugman had served as interim CEO since March, replacing Amy Carrier, who’d been CEO since 2021.

Asked in March about Carrier’s departure, Dr. Tom Nygaard, chairman of the health system’s board, told WSET, “We felt that it was time for the organization to move on. Take a bit of a different direction,”

Tugman also served as Centra’s interim CEO for several months before Carrier’s hiring, following the January 2021 departure of former Centra CEO Dr. Andrew Mueller, who left to become CEO of MaineHealth in Portland, Maine.

From 2016 to 2021, Tugman had been CEO of Piedmont Community Health Plan, a health insurance subsidiary of Centra Health. In April, Piedmont, which stopped offering individual health insurance in 2023, announced it would stop selling group commercial health insurance at the end of 2024. Piedmont will “wind down its business” in 2025 and “some period beyond,” according to a news release.

“For more than two years, Piedmont has explored ways to increase its critical mass to become more competitive with national insurers through potential partnerships and/or outside investments,” interim Piedmon CEO Ryan Ziemann said in an statement released in April. “While there was much outside interest in Piedmont, the company was unable to reach an agreement that would enable it to compete on a more level footing with its much larger competitors.”

Earlier in his career, Tugman was vice president and general counsel for Lynchburg’s Fleet Laboratories.

“Richard’s performance since his appointment in March 2024 as interim president [and] CEO, in addition to his leadership in the same role in 2021, validated the board’s full confidence, as well as that of our providers, caregivers and members of the communities in which Centra serves,” Nygaard said in a statement Thursday. “He has the ability to strategically guide the organization in its mission to provide access to the best health care now and into the future as we adapt to a challenging and changing health care environment.”

In late December 2023, Centra filed a $7 million lawsuit against Lynchburg Hematology-Oncology Clinic, an independent physicians group, stating that the clinic overbilled Centra for services from 2016 to 2021. In September, the case was dismissed.

The two parties “mutually and amicably resolved the lawsuit and related disputes” according to Emelyn Gwynn, a spokesperson for Centra.

LHOC’s professional services agreement with Centra expired at the end of March and LHOC providers then stopped treating patients at the Centra Alan B. Pearson Regional Cancer Center in Lynchburg, according to an announcement on the LHOC website. In April, Centra launched the Centra Hematology Oncology Clinics at the Pearson Cancer and at Centra Southside Community Hospital in Farmville.

Centra Health’s oncology department currently has two doctors in Farmville and seven in Lynchburg, with five more doctors starting “in the next few months,” according to Gwynn.

Four physicians who previously worked at LHOC now work for Centra, according to Gwynn. “Additionally, we have 12 advanced practice providers,” she said in a statement. “We are prioritizing the recruitment and interviews of more permanent providers to join CHOC. This will remain a top priority as we seek to build a long-term, sustainable team.”