Larry Fitzgerald Named Compliance Monitor for Ballad COPA

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Tennessee Department of Health Commissioner John Dreyzehner, MD, MPH, FACOEM in consultation with Tennessee Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery, III today announced Larry Fitzgerald will serve as the Certificate of Public Advantage monitor. In this role, Fitzgerald will be responsible for evaluating the continued public advantage of the COPA by monitoring Ballad Health’s compliance with the COPA and the terms of certification and working with TDH to assess Ballad’s performance against the established index measures.

Fitzgerald comes to this position after serving as chief financial and business development officer for the University of Virginia’s Health System for the past 19 years.

“The monitor will play a significant role in the COPA process, and Larry Fitzgerald brings years of expertise and experience to the post,” Dreyzehner said. “As Ballad charts a new course for health care in the region, meeting key measurements is crucial to the fundamental goal of providing a public advantage to the residents of Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia.”

As outlined in Tennessee statute, the duties of the monitor include:

• Reviewing reports from Ballad for completeness and compliance with the COPA and the terms of certification;

• Reviewing semi-annual reports of the COPA compliance officer concerning complaints related to the COPA or the terms of certification;

• Conducting audits to verify information provided in required reports and/or to determine compliance with the COPA and terms of certification;

• Reviewing and making recommendations to the commissioner concerning any requests for modification of any provision of the COPA and the terms of certification submitted by Ballad;

• Reporting on a regular basis to the department any findings of noncompliance or any areas where Ballad is not achieving target outcomes and/or is failing to meet the index scores needed to demonstrate continued public advantage, along with any recommendations of enforcement mechanisms; and

• Providing an annual report to the department within 30 days of the local advisory council report that should include index scores, updates on compliance with the COPA and the terms of     certification, the status of existing corrective actions, any recommended enforcement mechanisms, any additional findings of the COPA monitor and any other information requested by   the department. 

“Larry Fitzgerald is more than qualified to take on the role of the COPA monitor. He has significant executive experience with five health care systems over 35 plus years, including the University of Pittsburgh and most recently the well-respected University of Virginia Health System where he was its chief financial and business development officer. His connections to Virginia and Tennessee are deep, having grown up in Tennessee, graduated from a Tennessee university and spent the last 18 years in Virginia,” said Attorney General Slatery.

“The COPA involves two states, two regulatory structures, urban and rural facilities and multiple markets over a 21-county area,” Slatery continued. “It’s a big job and we needed someone of Larry’s knowledge, reputation and experience to facilitate this critical piece of the venture. We are grateful he has agreed to serve and look forward to working with him.”

Fitzgerald’s career includes posts at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center as vice president and chief financial officer with University of Pittsburgh Physicians and acting vice president of patient business services. He served as vice president and chief financial officer of the Greenville, S.C. Hospital System and senior vice president and chief financial officer of the Western Pennsylvania Health Care System in Pittsburgh. From 1982 to 1990, he served in a variety of positions at American Medical International, Inc. in Houston ranging from manager of budget and finance in the Gulf States region to chief financial officer and vice president of the organization. He also worked for the INA Corporation in Dallas and began his career at Ernst and Whinney in Nashville.

He is a certified public accountant, and graduated magna cum laude from Middle Tennessee State University where he earned a Bachelor of Science in accounting.

Fitzgerald will begin his new role as COPA monitor June 1, 2018.

The mission of the Tennessee Department of Health is to protect, promote and improve the health and prosperity of people in Tennessee. TDH has facilities in all 95 counties and provides direct services for more than one in five Tennesseans annually as well as indirect services for everyone in the state, including emergency response to health threats, licensure of health professionals, regulation of health care facilities and inspection of food service establishments. Learn more about TDH services and programs at www.tn.gov/health.