VCU Health, a network of hospitals and healthcare facilities across Virginia, has taken another step in overhauling its debt collection process, one that will take its lawyers more than a year to complete.
The organization has announced that it is canceling all existing liens against the homes of former patients who have unpaid medical debts and will no longer seize or garnish the wages of former patients. The moves are yet another step being taken by VCU Health after it was called out last year in published reports for being too aggressive with its collection efforts.
A host of healthcare networks across the country have been subjected to articles from mainstream media outlets questioning why they sue individuals with unpaid debts. Hospitals in Virginia, Oklahoma, New York, Tennessee, and Maryland have all been accused of being too aggressive with their collection efforts.
After the report was released, VCU had announced that it would no longer file lawsuits to collect on unpaid medical debts. This latest announcement goes even beyond that. A published report said it will take VCU Health lawyers as long as a year to go from courthouse to courthouse across Virginia to file the proper paperwork to cancel the liens against the former patients’ homes.
“Health care needs to be more affordable for patients, and we want to be part of the solution,” said Melinda Hancock, VCU Health’s chief administrative and financial officer, in a published report. “We believe that no hospital bill should change the economic status of a family.”
VCU Health said it would not reimburse patients for anything that had been previously collected.
