An administrative ruling on May 10 upheld the state’s ruling allowing AdventHealth to build a hospital in Weaverville, Buncombe County, just north of Asheville.
The control of the for-profit HCA, which runs Mission Health’s organization of hospitals and other services from a base in Asheville, would arguably not be pleased if the state chose AdventHealth instead.
The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services approved AdventHealth’s application for a certificate of desire to build the 67-bed facility in November 2022, and Mission Health appealed the decision, according to the AdventHealth news release.
The HCA can appeal the recent maximum ruling within 30 days, according to the ruling.
The move is the latest progression in a series of legal battles HCA is waging in a similar fashion to North Carolina, several of them over its control of Mission Health.
A former Mission Hospital employee, Sharon McRee, also sued HCA on April 25, alleging that the company underpaid her, along with what could be another 1,000 workers.
The City of Asheville, the City of Brevard, Buncombe County, and Madison County are also plaintiffs in a federal antitrust lawsuit opposing the HCA filed in 2022. Lawyers for either of them filed proposed deadlines for the case on May 6.
Attorney General Josh Stein also sued HCA in December, saying HCA is offering the point of care the Tennessee-based company promised when the state approved HCA’s acquisition of Mission Health System in 2019.
Buncombe County filed a motion to join the attorney general’s case opposing HCA on April 3, saying the understaffing at Mission Hospital’s emergency room is costing taxpayers by forcing staff at emergency medical facilities to wait longer to discharge patients.
The administrative law judge’s ruling on the new hospital comes after AdventHealth, a Florida-based nonprofit religious organization, announced in March that it had more than 30 acres of land in Weaverville for the planned facility.
The new hospital would serve Buncombe, Madison and Yancey counties, according to AdventHealth.
AdventHealth recently operated a hospital in Hendersonville, south of Asheville. The new hospital would give AdventHealth a presence north and south of Asheville.
The new facility would have thirteen beds in the delivery unit, 12 beds in the emergency department, and 42 medical and surgical beds.
AdventHealth also plans to request 26 additional intensive care beds at the hospital through the June 17 deadline, bringing the total to 93 beds.
The fitness formula plans to send the architect and general contractor of the new hospital in the coming weeks, AdventHealth said.
AdventHealth expects the allocation to be $254 million, AdventHealth spokesperson Victoria Dunkle said in an email to Carolina Public Press. Once the fitness formula begins to be painted on site, Dunkle said the structure is expected to take 18 to 24 months.
Patrick Fitzsimmons, mayor of Weaverville, told the CPP that he was “really pleased” with the judge’s ruling because the mountain area north of Asheville suffers from “a shortage of available medical services. “
He would be surprised if the HCA appealed the ruling again, he said, but he hopes the proceedings will move forward.
The city also signed a letter in favor of AdventHealth’s offer and is in favor of adding 26 beds, Fitzsimmons said.
AdventHealth management has been working with him for months on the task and communicates with him about the process, he said.
AdventHealth is planning listening sessions for the network to talk about the proposed 26 more beds.
Reacting to the question of whether the organization needs to attract a good enough workforce, Dunkle said that while healthcare is a “competitive industry,” AdventHealth is proud of its culture and promises to take care of its team members through competitive compensation and professional development. , and a network of opportunities.
“We have noticed a lot of excitement around our new hospital from patients and others interested in the opportunity to join the AdventHealth team,” Dunkle wrote.
Attorney General Josh Stein emailed the CPP about the ruling, saying, “The Court’s ruling will encourage the festival of physical care in Western North Carolina, which would possibly lead to increased attention and decreased prices. I commend the career attorneys at the Department of Justice and the Department of Health and Human Services who have effectively fought on behalf of patients.
A former Mission Hospital worker also filed a lawsuit against HCA on April 25, alleging that HCA workers were underpaid due to the change in schedules.
McRee filed the case on behalf of an organization of workers who were also affected, which in total may number more than 1,000 people, according to the lawsuit.
McRee worked as a respiratory therapist at the hospital from 2002 to 2022, according to the lawsuit. She alleged that HCA underpaid her and other staff members through altered or erroneous records.
For example, according to the lawsuit, McRee was able to and did clock in a few minutes before his 6:30 a. m. shift began. m. , but HCA did not pay him for those additional minutes. When McRee worked a few minutes after his shift ended, at 7 p. m. m. , they did not pay him for the minutes either.
HCA deducted a 30-minute meal break from his paycheck, even though McRee was almost never able to take a meal break during his shift, according to the lawsuit.
The hospital also paid overtime, according to the lawsuit.
The plaintiffs, adding Buncombe County, the City of Asheville, the City of Brevard and Madison County, as the defendant HCA, filed a proposed schedule for the federal antitrust case opposing the HCA on May 6.
According to the plaintiffs’ schedule, the trial would be held in May 2027.
The proposed timeline is “truly a work in progress” and we will decide after the initial pretrial convention on June 6, according to Brevard City Attorney Mack McKeller.
As for the fair trial for hard work and the attorney general’s judgment, McKeller emailed the CPP, “this only underscores our assertion that HCAs have shrunk since they purchased Mission. “
Maureen Copelof, the mayor of Brevard, said she is pushing to move the matter forward as temporarily as possible while remaining thorough.
As the legal war continues, so does the HCA’s alleged monopolistic behavior, he said, and monopolies mean less incentive to provide higher-quality care.
Reacting to other litigation surrounding HCA, he said, “The number of lawsuits that tangentially shows something difficult about what’s going on. “
Reacting to the ruling on defending AdventHealth’s plans to build a hospital in Weaverville, HCA spokesperson Nancy Lindell wrote via email, “We are disappointed with the Office of Administrative Hearings’ resolution on the allocation of 67 intensive care beds to Advent Health.
“This will not solve the need to send high-level ICU patients out of the region when our region’s complex care beds, which are only available at Mission Hospital, are full. “
Regarding McRee’s lawsuit, Lindell wrote, “The allegations in this lawsuit are baseless and Mission Health will protect itself from legal proceedings. “
This article was first published on Carolina Public Press and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
We will rate your preference to know the full story. For more than 25 years, Xpress has been committed to in-depth and balanced reporting on the greater Asheville area. We need everyone to know our stories. This is a big component of why I never charged for registration or set up a paywall.
We’re pretty sure you know that journalism is facing wonderful and demanding situations these days. Advertising will no longer pay the full cost. Media outlets across the country are asking their readers to participate. Xpress also wants help. We hope you will sign up to become a member of Xpress. For as little as $5 a month (the value of a craft beer or kombucha) you can help keep local journalism strong. It just takes a moment.
Before you comment
The commentary segment is there to provide a platform for civil discussion about the issues we face together as a local community. Xpress is committed to providing this platform to all voices, however, when the tone of the discussion becomes off-topic or veers off topic, we know that many other people choose not to participate. Xpress editors are committed to moderating comments to ensure that a constructive exchange continues. All comments deemed not to be in the spirit of civic discourse will be removed and repeat offenders will be removed. be banned. See our Terms of Service here. Thank you for being a part of this effort to promote respectful discussion.
Grace may have casually remarked that the vast majority of wage era disputes predate the HCA.
Enter your URL WordPress. com