What began as whispers about morale problems within UVA Health has turned into a federal racketeering case. A lawsuit filed on October 3rd in the Western District of Virginia accuses former CEO Dr. Craig Kent and former School of Medicine dean Dr. Melina Kibbe of running the health system like a business empire rather than a hospital.
The 105-page complaint, brought on by four physicians and the families of two dead patients, details what it calls a “hostile takeover of a revered medical system.” The document alleges that Kent, Kibbe, and a group of high-ranking physicians ran an outfit known as “The Kent Enterprise” to increase funds and rankings while intimidating anyone who stood in the way.
The specifics of the suit are straightforward. The complaint lists fraudulent billing, altering medical records, and having “over-staffed” operations to bill Medicare excessive charges. Whistle-blowers who complained of these practices were demoted or forced out. One of these surgeons is Dr. Mark Roesern, whose complaint lists being denied an opportunity for advancement as well as being forced to work in an unsafe surgical environment.
Kent and Kibbe deny everything, and both label the allegations baseless. “During my five-year tenure as CEO of UVA Health, my team and I remained focused on delivering exceptional and high-quality healthcare to Virginians and beyond. These allegations against me are absurd and baseless and many have already been publicly disproven,” Kent said. Kibbe, now leading UTHealth Houston, said there is “no legal basis” for the case and expressed confidence she’d be vindicated.
If these sound like familiar complaints, it’s because there’s been trouble brewing at UVA Health for years. In the fall of 2024, 128 UVA Physicians Group physicians signed a letter of no confidence against Kent and Kibbe for fostering a “culture of fear and retribution” and for having “priorities that value money over medicine.” President Jim Ryan and the Board of Visitors were prompted to bring in the D.C. law firm of Williams & Connolly to investigate.
That process went on for months, involving over 160 people and searching through hundreds of thousands of pages of documents. When the findings were presented to the board in February 2025, Kent submitted his resignation on the same day. In an announcement to staff by Ryan himself, it was made clear that there were “sufficient concerns about leadership and trust” to consider his role untenable, despite the absence of wrongdoing in billing and compliance.
Kibbe’s name had never been mentioned in the statements released by the board, but she quietly departed her position that summer.
The plaintiffs’ lawyers rely heavily on the federal statute known as the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. “Craig Kent, Dean Kibbe, and others deliberately set out to organize a group that deployed a strategy of illegal acts that caused massive harm to patients and medical professionals,” said attorney Gladstone Jones. Attorney Les Bowers claimed that Kibbe compelled the integration of personnel deemed “incompetent and dangerous.”
UVA has declined to comment, citing the ongoing litigation. Not all defendants have been served, and no court date has been set. For now, the healthcare system is being led by Dr. Mitchell Rosner, the chair of the Department of Medicine at UCB. Whether or not the suit is successful, it opens a wound that never quite closed — one that began with faculty letters and back-hallway frustration, and has now landed in federal court.
I had to pay over 7000.00 for four infusions on disability. Pay 133.00 month no patient assistance cause I own my home
Wow, hostile take over! I thought you ment some franchise hospital was secretly buying up shares of UVA, only they aren’t a publicly traded company. I think you meant kicking out administrators with a business perspective and replacing them with progressive socialists. I guess the old admiration saw profit making as essential to growth and survival. The new people will have to rely on generous gift giving from capitalist s who have made their wealth elsewhere , or tax payers via government subsidies.
Hello my name is Glenna Bower. We lost our beloved daughter at UVA on 04/16/2024. She was there for her 2nd stem cell transplant and was half way through when she went into cardiac arrest. She was not on a heart monitor to alert anyone and no one knew how long she was not breathing before they found her. All we know is it took 12 minutes to bring her back and then she was brain dead. When asked why she wasn’t on a heart monitor they claimed they didn’t use them on stem cell transplant patients! I don’t believe that since the drug they were using could cause the heart to stop. I tried several different lawyer’s to look into this but it seems no one wants to go against UVA. I would love to talk with you as I feel my daughter died because of someone’s mistake.
I am so incredibly sorry you lost your daughter. I trusted UVA wirh my medical care over 7 years. I have multiple disabilities that require constant care and surgery. I survived, by the grace of God. I was misdiagnosed twice in the ER. My records were falsified. My abnormal test results were ignored. I arrived by ambulance and no one at UVA notified my emergency contact. No attorney will touch these cases because it’s too time consuming, too expensive, and there’s political bias. I was told bluntly it would take years and thousands of dollars. I found another way. Report it to the state of Virginia Health Dept. Report the individuals by name. Report it to yout insurance company, report any HIPAA violations. Your report will help my reports, and the reports of others. No one associated with UVA will do anything. Trust me on that. The state dept. is not affiliated with UVA. It will take months, but I encourage you to call and speak to the state health dept. UVA is carelessly and medically abusing patients. My medical records were fabricated for profit. A much higher paying diagnosis was made, and wasn’t retracted for over 10 hours. Don’t give up. We all deserve accountability from UVA. I will continue to speak out for those who lost their lives unnecessarily due to the corruption of UVA.