VCU Health said it'd stop suing patients in 2019. Did it?
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VCU Health was one of the country's most aggressive hospital debt collectors until late 2019, when the Richmond-based hospital system pledged to stop suing patients over unpaid bills.
Why it matters: A new report from Stanford and George Washington universities says it didn't fully follow through — a finding VCU disputes.
Driving the news: VCU reduced lawsuits by more than 99% after the 2019 pledge, but didn't entirely eliminate them, according to Stanford and GW's recent analysis of Virginia court records.
- 2010-19: VCU filed roughly 92,100 lawsuits against patients, the most in the state.
- 2020-24: About 600.
What they're saying: VCU spokesperson Michael Porter told Axios that VCU Health downloaded and reviewed the data referenced in the report and is "unable to confirm" that it has filed new debt collection lawsuits since 2019.
An Axios review of those records found hundreds of cases from 2020 to 2024 where VCU Health or related entities used the courts to collect unpaid debts, including through wage garnishments.
- Wage garnishments let hospitals collect money directly from patients' paychecks and can stem from earlier lawsuits.
Zoom in: The state-run hospital system won 85% of cases between 2010 and 2024, per the report, with courts ordering patients to collectively pay more than $132 million in bills, fees and court costs.
- More than 17,400 cases led to wage garnishments.
Catch up quick: In September 2019, VCU said it would end routine lawsuits, halt garnishments and stop placing liens on patients' homes — which allow hospitals to collect debt from the sale of a patient's property.
- That came after a KFF Health News investigation found VCU filed over 56,000 lawsuits against its patients through its MCV Physicians group between 2011 and 2018.
Zoom out: VCU Health was part of a larger trend in Virginia.
- Between 2010 and 2024, hospitals and providers statewide filed more than 1.5 million medical debt collection lawsuits or garnishment orders, per the latest report.
- Some systems — like UVA Health and HCA Healthcare, which includes Chippenham — seem to have stopped suing patients after 2019.
- But post-2019, at least 60,000 medical debt lawsuits were still filed by other Virginia providers.
The intrigue: The report found that Chesterfield-based OrthoVirginia has filed the most lawsuits since 2020, with over 14,000 cases.
- Jennifer Bodner, OrthoVirginia's chief financial officer, told Axios the claims are "a small portion" of their patient population and are a last resort after "multiple outreach attempts" and third-party collections.
What's next: Starting July 1, a new Virginia law will limit how health care providers collect unpaid bills by:
- Capping fees
- Banning wage garnishments of people who qualify for financial assistance
- Requiring providers to wait at least 120 days and notify patients before taking legal action
What we're watching: Whether that leads hospitals and other providers to scale back court-based collections.