Arm of UK HealthCare stays secretive as its influence, reach grow
Many people in Lexington who see doctors at University of Kentucky HealthCare write checks to the Kentucky Medical Services Foundation.
But few know much more about the foundation, which takes in more than $200 million a year from patient billings, and owns $96 million in real estate and equipment. Although its board is made up almost entirely of UK doctors, UK contends the foundation is a separate, private entity that does not have to make its records available for public inspection.
UK administrators have also used the foundation’s coffers to pay for a private airplane, construction of a daycare center, and millions of dollars in contracts with consultants and lawyers that aren’t subject to state procurement rules and don’t have to go through a bidding process. It even pays for the Keeneland membership of UK Executive Vice President for Health Affairs Michael Karpf, and supports aging foxhounds at the Iroquois Hunt Club.
Most recently, the foundation paid $1 million to a Washington, D.C. lawyer to clean up billing problems with the federal government by a cardiology practice that the foundation acquired in 2014. The foundation also paid part of the $4 million refund to the federal government.
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