This is a developing story and will be updated.
North Carolina’s attorney general is urging state health officials to reject Mission Hospital’s bid to add 26 more beds to its Asheville facility, according to a letter sent Monday and shared with BPR News. The attorney general’s office cited the need for more competition in the region and a series of recent complaints against Mission Hospital’s owner, HCA Healthcare.
The letter comes as Nashville-based HCA, Florida-based AdventHealth and Winston-Salem-based Novant Health are competing for a “certificate of need,” just as they did two years ago.
Attorney General Josh Stein, a Democratic candidate for governor, has been one of HCA’s most outspoken critics. Last year, Stein sued the for-profit hospital company, alleging it violated the terms of its 2019 purchase of Mission Health System.
Kevin Anderson, senior counsel for consumer protection and multistate litigation, wrote in a letter Monday that the granting of certificates of need “should promote competition and advance the core principles of the State Health Facilities Program: safety, quality, access and value.” Anderson wrote that “… granting Mission’s application would accomplish neither of those things.”
North Carolina law requires health care providers to obtain a “certificate of need” from state health officials before they can add facilities or equipment.
“Mission already enjoys a significant market share for acute care services in Western North Carolina, making it an inadequate candidate to increase competition in the region,” Anderson wrote. “Furthermore, Mission has failed to provide safe, high-quality, accessible and affordable care to the region in its existing facilities.”
A spokesperson for HCA Healthcare did not immediately respond to BPR’s request for comment.
Since HCA acquired Mission Health System, the company has faced mass staff departures, growing legal troubles and increased federal scrutiny: Late last year, federal officials declared that conditions at Mission Hospital put patients in “imminent danger,” briefly putting the facility at risk of losing Medicare and Medicaid funding.
The designation was lifted in June. Still, the letter from the attorney general’s office is the latest sign that HCA’s critics continue to pressure the company over its management of Mission Hospital.
Last week, a group of local elected officials and health care workers launched a coalition called Reclaim Healthcare WNC, aimed at forcing HCA to sell Mission Health System.
As for HCA’s expansion hopes, Stein’s office sent a similar letter to NCDHHS two years ago opposing its application for a certificate of need for an additional 67 acute care beds to serve residents of Buncombe, Graham, Madison and Yancey counties. The certificate was ultimately awarded to AdventHealth. Mission appealed the decision, resulting in more than a year of court battles. An administrative judge upheld the decision in May.
