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Tag: Bon Secours Mercy Health

Bon Secours Hampton Roads Foundation promotes new president

The Bon Secours Mercy Health Foundation, which coordinates charitable giving for all hospitals, facilities, programs and services operated by Bon Secours Mercy Health, has named Carrie Miller president of its Bon Secours Hampton Roads Foundation, the health care system announced Monday.

Previously, Miller worked for close to a decade as senior gift officer for organizational giving at the regional foundation. Before that, Miller served as development and operations director for Junior Achievement of Greater Hampton Roads.

Miller has secured significant funding from private and government sources that have benefited community health programs, including the Care-A-Van, a free medical service that provides general medical care to uninsured adults and children, and the recent Healthy Food Pantry at the Community Health Hub in Portsmouth, the health system said.

Additionally, Miller has held leadership roles at Bon Secours Hampton Roads, including serving as a member of the market’s executive leadership committee, acting as the market liaison for advocacy and government affairs and chairing the sponsorship committee.

Miller has a bachelor’s degree in health science from Clemson University and a master’s degree in public health from the University of Virginia.

Currently, a priority for the foundation is enhancing facilities, like the expansion of Bon Secours Harbour View Medical Center in Suffolk, which is currently the focus on a $1 million fundraising campaign to build a new surgical medical center.

Bon Secours operates three hospitals and medical centers and one outpatient facility in Hampton Roads. The Bon Secours Richmond Health System offers a network of seven acute hospitals, primary and specialty care practices, ambulatory care sites and continuing care facilities across a 24-locality region.

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.”

 

Bon Secours sues Anthem for $93M

Health system Bon Secours filed suit against insurer Anthem Health Plans of Virginia Monday in Henrico County Circuit Court, alleging Anthem owes Bon Secours $93 million in unpaid claims.

The plaintiffs, collectively titled BSMH Virginia, allege that Anthem Health Plans of Virginia (doing business as Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield) failed to pay “in excess of $73 million” on claims older than 30 days, and that BSMH Virginia incurred more than $20 million in write-offs since 2020. In addition to $93 million, BSMH Virginia also seeks an injunction, up to three times the actual damages, attorneys’ fees and costs, plus interest.

“Today, we must share our belief that Anthem owes Bon Secours Mercy Health more than $93 million in outstanding unpaid and underpaid claims in Virginia alone, which significantly impacts our ability to provide sustainable, compassionate, high-quality care for our patients and communities,” Bon Secours said in a statement.

Anthem said in a statement, “We do not agree with the allegations stated in the lawsuit. This is the latest tactic in [Bon Secours’] efforts to demand double-digit price increases from employers and individuals — in the middle of an active [commercial] contract with Anthem.”

Bon Secours alleges that “Anthem’s slow pay and no-pay tactics [resulted] in an enormous volume of BSMH Virginia claims being arbitrarily denied, downgraded and/or pended, thereby forcing BSMH Virginia to spend an inordinate number of hours responding to excessive and unreasonable requests for additional information and undertaking extraordinary efforts to secure payment.”

BSMH Virginia alleges Anthem’s tactics included using a modified emergency visit pricing policy to downgrade emergency room claims and having its Special Investigations Unit make “onerous requests for medical records and unnecessarily audit emergency room claims.”

Under the Virginia Ethics and Fairness in Carrier Business Practices Act, a health insurance carrier has 40 days from receipt of a claim to pay it, except in cases where the carrier’s obligation to pay the claim is not “reasonably clear.” In October 2019, Anthem told BSMH Virginia that high-dollar reviews were backlogged for more than 90 days, according to the complaint.

Bon Secours alleges that despite multiple meetings between teams and executives of the health system and Anthem, the insurer failed to pay a growing amount owed in reimbursements and the two did not reach an agreement.

“We have exercised every possible nonlegal option available to us for nearly four years to address this issue privately,” Bon Secours said in a statement.

Earlier this year, Bon Secours and Anthem failed to reach an agreement on reimbursement rates that resulted in Bon Secours providers became out of network for patients with Anthem Medicare Advantage health insurance on Aug. 1. If Bon Secours and Anthem do not reach an agreement on Anthem Medicaid Advantage reimbursement rates by Sept. 30, Bon Secours providers will become out of network for patients with that plan on Oct. 1.

“This lawsuit is another attempt to distract from Bon Secours’ decision to leave Anthem’s provider network and deny access to care for Medicaid and Medicare Advantage members,” Anthem said in a statement.

“As recently as last Thursday, we reached out to Mercy Health national leadership for a meeting and Friday to Bon Secours’ Virginia leadership requesting that they rescind the Medicare Advantage termination and intent to terminate Medicaid access on [Oct. 1],” Anthem said in the statement. “We have not heard back.”

In the complaint, the plaintiffs allege that Anthem owes the system’s parent, Bon Secours Mercy Health, about $85 million in unpaid claims in Ohio and $6 million in Kentucky.

In April, Winchester-based Valley Health and Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield settled a suit that Valley Health had filed over unpaid reimbursements, initially seeking $11.4 million, which grew to $15 million. The terms of the settlement were confidential.

On June 28, Anthem paid $300,000 to settle a finding from the State Corporation Commission’s Bureau of Insurance that it was not paying claims within the 40-day requirement. The state regulators’ review found that Anthem did not pay 347 claims of the 67,000 it received from December 2022 to February 2023 within the 40-day timeframe.

BSMH Virginia has 10 hospitals in the Richmond area and Hampton Roads and has more than 14,000 employees, including 820 physicians, according to the complaint.

Anthem, owned by Elevance Health, is the largest health insurance carrier in Virginia, according to the complaint. Elevance Health reported $156 billion in total revenue for 2022 and a net income of $6 billion.

Bon Secours names new Maryview hospital president

Shane Knisley will be president of Bon Secours Maryview Medical Center in Portsmouth starting March 13, the health system announced Monday.

Knisley joined Bon Secours in 2018, working in its Cincinnati market. He was most recently president of Mercy Health – Clermont Hospital in Batavia, Ohio. Prior to that, he served as chief operating officer of Mercy Health – Fairfield Hospital in Cincinnati. Before joining Bon Secours, Knisley worked for Sparks Health System in Arkansas as COO after working for Lake Granbury Medical Center in Texas as assistant CEO.

Knisley has relocated to Norfolk, and in his new role, he will be responsible for the 346-bed hospital’s overall operations.

“It’s an honor to continue my service to this ministry in a new capacity in Hampton Roads and work with our physicians, associates and community partners to serve the distinct needs of our patients both in and around Portsmouth,” Knisley said in a statement.

Knisley served in the U.S. Navy for 23 years, retiring in 2014. During that time, he served as a hospital corpsman and was commissioned as an officer with the Navy’s Medical Service Corps.

“Shane’s military background, plus the work ethic and problem solving his decades of service instilled in him, make him a natural fit to lead the Maryview team,” Pat Davis-Hagens, president of the Bon Secours Hampton Roads market, said in a statement.

Knisley holds a bachelor’s degree in information systems management from the University of Maryland University College, now called the University of Maryland Global Campus, and a master’s degree in health administration from Baylor University’s Army-Baylor Program. He also graduated from the Marine Corps Command and Staff College in Quantico.

Kate Brinn, who was president of Maryview Medical Center and of Harbour View Medical Campus in Suffolk, left the health system in early 2023.

On the mend

After two years of severe staff shortages at health care facilities nationwide, conditions at the big three hospital systems in Hampton Roads are improving.

“The last two years have been some of the most challenging times for nurses in our lifetime,” says Cassie Lewis, chief nursing and quality officer for Bon Secours’ Hampton Roads market. “No one has an overabundance of nurses,” she notes, but Bon Secours was able to hire 150 nurses during a three-month period earlier this year. As of August, its job vacancy rate had dropped by 25%, compared with the prior six months.

“All my metrics are moving in the right direction,” Lewis says.

To keep metrics positive, though, hospitals, like just about every other business in America, have had to increase pay substantially, with merit raises, bonuses and cash rewards now an expected — even standard — part of compensation. In the past two years alone, for example, Sentara Healthcare says it has invested $310 million in covering the added costs of attracting and keeping health care workers.

A big chunk of such investments has gone toward benefits. Among numerous upgrades, Sentara now offers its nearly 30,000 workers a paid personal day, which 2,500 employees already have taken. It also has instituted a program that pays as much as $400 a month toward student loans, with more than 3,000 employees now enrolled.

With 9,500 employees, Riverside Health System has added a personal day and started a child care subsidy. It also offers money toward college, a benefit that has “been very well received,” says Jesse Goodrich, the health care system’s senior vice president of human resources. And at Bon Secours, which employs about 11,500 people in Virginia, paid parental leave has quadrupled from two weeks to eight weeks, and nurses are given a huge say in which facility they work at, a policy change that has received “an overwhelmingly positive” response, Lewis says.

With Virginia hospitals having lost some nurses during the height of the pandemic to better-paying travel nursing jobs or lower-stress private practices, competitive compensation is key to hospitals staying staffed — but so is listening to employees, executives say.

Goodrich notes that Riverside regularly surveys employees to “find the pebbles in their shoes.” Goodrich and Lewis insist that creating a positive workplace — even more than pay or benefits — is what ultimately attracts and retains employees.

“Health care is all about relationships,” says Goodrich, while Lewis says that “money is not what any nurse is in the business for.”

Aside from patient-level staffing, the three health systems have made some changes at the top. Most notably, in September, former Sentara Health Plans President Dennis Matheis succeeded Howard P. Kern as Sentara Healthcare’s new president and CEO. In September, Bill Downey announced he would step down as CEO at the end of 2022, with Dr. Michael Dacey, president and chief operating officer, succeeding Downey on Jan. 1. Allan Parrott, former CEO of Tidewater Fleet Supply LLC, was elected chair of Sentara’s board in June. And last fall, Pat Davis-Hagens came from Bon Secours Mercy Health’s The Jewish Hospital in Ohio to serve as Bon Secours’ Hampton Roads market president.

Sentara’s upcoming initiatives include increased community outreach, adding community clinics in affordable housing communities; a health care bus; and a $5 million investment in 30 community organizations involved in eliminating barriers to health and human services.

Riverside Behavioral Health Center’s emergency department is set to open in Newport News late next year, and in Williamsburg, the hospital system has broken ground on a 67,000-square-foot medical office building.

The system’s largest undertaking, though, will be Riverside Smithfield Hospital, a project anticipated to cost $100 million. Construction of the 50-bed acute-care hospital in Isle of Wight County is expected to begin this fall, with an opening date of late 2025 or early 2026. 

Bon Secours Richmond president leaving for Pa. health system

Bon Secours Mercy Health Richmond President Faraaz Yousef will be leaving the health system to become chief operating officer and an executive vice president for Pennsylvania-based WellSpan Health.

He will end his tenure at Bon Secours on April 29 and the health system is conducting a national search for his successor.

“Faraaz has led the Richmond team through one of the most challenging times in health care, navigating a global pandemic while simultaneously expanding access to care in the Richmond region,” a Bon Secours spokesperson said in an email. “He led the effort to break ground on a new emergency department facility in Chester, Virginia, and the renovation of Rappahannock General Hospital. He and his team also successfully integrated two new hospitals and the acquisition of a large orthopedic physician practice into the Richmond Market. “

Yousef starts his new role on June 6, succeeding John Porter, who plans to retire June 30, a WellSpan Health spokesperson said in an email. WellSpan owns seven hospitals in central Pennsylvania.

Yousef has served as president of the Bon Secours’ Richmond market since December 2019 following Bon Secours and Mercy Health completed their merger in 2018. He joined Bon Secours Mercy Health in July 2019 as chief strategy officer of the Atlantic Group, a role in which he was responsible for strategic planning across Virginia, South Carolina, Florida, New York and Maryland. Yousef has overseen seven hospitals and three freestanding emergency centers as market president.

In January 2020, Bon Secours finalized its purchase of Southside Regional Medical Center in Petersburg, Southern Virginia Regional Medical Center in Emporia and Southampton Memorial Hospital in Franklin. The health system had previously announced the acquisition in October 2019. In November 2021, Bon Secours acquired Richmond-based Tuckahoe Orthopaedics.

The system is working on a $50 million expansion of Memorial Regional Medical Center in Mechanicsville and a $119 million expansion of St. Francis Medical Center in Chesterfield County. In 2021, Bon Secours began working on a $30 million free-standing emergency center in Chester.

He previously worked with Baltimore-based LifeBridge Health as president of its Northwest Hospital and a senior vice president. Beforehand, Yousuf was COO of Sutter Health’s Sutter Medical Center in Sacramento, California, and prior to that, COO of Good Samaritan Hospital in San Jose, California, for HCA Healthcare (then Hospital Corp. of America).

Yousuf holds a master’s in health care administration and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Virginia Commonwealth University. He serves on the board of directors for Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association.

One of the top 20 health systems in the United States, Bon Secours Mercy Health was formed in 2018 following the merger of Bon Secours Health System and Cincinnati-based Mercy Health.

Bon Secours names new Hampton Roads market president

Bon Secours has named Pat Davis-Hagens as its new Hampton Roads market president, the health system announced Tuesday.

Davis-Hagens is currently the president of The Jewish Hospital – Mercy Health, in Cincinnati, Ohio, a role she has held since 2014. Bon Secours is part of the Bon Secours Mercy Health system. She will relocate to the Hampton Roads area to take the place of Amy F. Carrier, who left the Bon Secours Mercy Health system to be the president and CEO of Lynchburg-based Centra last month.

Davis-Hagens joined Mercy Health in 2006 as the vice president of patient care and chief nursing officer at Mercy Health – Fairfield Hospital in Cincinnati and has served in other leadership roles. Bon Secours Mercy Health formed in 2018 when Bon Secours Health System and Mercy Health combined to form the country’s fifth-largest Catholic health care ministry and one of the 20 largest health care systems.

As the market president, Davis-Hagens will oversee all Hampton Roads operations. The health system runs three hospitals in Franklin, Newport News and Portsmouth.

“Pat is an integrative and dynamic leader with notable achievements that drive improved community outcomes while ensuring the patient is at the center of every decision,” Paul Smith, Bon Secours Mercy Health group president, said in a statement. “She has the benefit of building upon a firm foundation of excellence over her 15 years with the ministry, where she focused on compassionate, quality patient care and efficient, effective operations.”

Davis-Hagens holds a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Salem State College and an MBA from Plymouth State College.

Bon Secours seeks to expand Suffolk hospital

Bon Secours Mercy Health announced on Monday it has filed a certificate of public need (COPN) to expand its Suffolk hospital by 67,000 square feet and add up to 36 beds.

The proposed expansion stems from the increased need for inpatient beds, resulting from findings from the COVID-19 pandemic and population growth in the area. It would bring the Harbour View Hospital’s capacity to up to 54 total beds, building on an expansion plan approved by the state in December 2018.

The cost of the expansion is approximately $115.7 million, says Bon Secours spokesperson Jenna Green.

“Since 1999, when the Bon Secours Health Center at Harbour View was built, Bon Secours has been committed to finding innovative ways of serving the growing health care needs of the western Hampton Roads community,” Kate Brinn, president of the Bon Secours Maryview Medical Center and the Bon Secours Harbour View Medical Campus, said in a statement. “This expansion would help us meet the growing demand for inpatient services and allow for more flexibility in patient placement, bring much-needed obstetrical services to the area and ensure that we are prepared to handle any potential surge in patient volume well into the future.”

The COPN requests an expansion for inpatient services at the Harbour View Hospital, including up to 12 beds for obstetrical/gynecological and neonatal services, up to eight intensive care beds and up to 16 medical/surgical beds. Bon Secours also plans to relocate the Harbour View Emergency Department, add a full kitchen and dining area, a sterile processing space, a nursery, a C-section room and possible additional waiting room and registration space.

Bon Secours is requesting letters and comments from community members in support of the expansion as part of the COPN process, which may be sent to Brinn. A petition is also circulating in support of the expansion.

Bon Secours Mercy Health operates 11 hospitals in the Richmond and Hampton Roads regions.

 

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