Buncombe County in North Caroline seeks to join state Attorney General Josh Stein’s (D) lawsuit against HCA Healthcare alleging the health system shirked its Mission Health acquisition agreement.
When HCA acquired Asheville, North Carolina-based Mission for $1.5 billion in 2019, Stein approved the transaction as long as HCA maintained services and increased behavioral health capacity, among other conditions. Stein in December sued HCA, alleging the Nashville, Tennessee-based for-profit hospital chain has failed to meet those terms.
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Buncombe County filed a motion last week in state court to join Stein’s lawsuit, which lists the company authorized to do business under Mission Health as a defendant. The proposed complaint filed with the motion to intervene adds details to Stein's allegations regarding emergency department wait times at Mission's flagship hospital in Buncombe County.
Specifically, it alleges the wait times for first responders to transfer patients to the emergency department have nearly doubled from 2020 to 2023. The alleged higher wait times resulted from alleged systemic and intentional understaffing, according to the proposed complaint.
Buncombe County seeks at least $3 million in damages and an injunction to compel HCA to improve its emergency medical care at Mission Hospital.
“In the years following their acquisition of the previously nonprofit Mission hospital system in early 2019, defendants have disregarded their statutory, contractual and common-law obligations, allowing emergency services at the emergency department at Mission Hospital to deteriorate dramatically,” the proposed complaint states.
In response to requests for comment addressed to HCA, a Mission spokesperson said in a statement it received the motion and will continue to defend the lawsuit vigorously.
Stein declined to comment.
The new allegations represent HCA’s latest legal challenges. Buncombe County filed a separate lawsuit in August 2019, accusing HCA of buying Mission to allegedly secure monopoly power, inflate prices and strong-arm insurers into anticompetitive contracts.
The North Caroline city of Brevard also sued HCA in June 2022 for allegedly forcing insurers and employers into anticompetitive contracts. While the alleged conduct took place before the Mission acquisition, the lawsuit alleges it increased after the deal closed in 2019.
Those lawsuits, consolidated in 2022, are ongoing.
