Josh Stein’s office wants state health department to deny Mission’s bed expansion application
Letter from NCDOJ calls HCA hospital “poor candidate to promote competition,” says hospital has endangered patients
ASHEVILLE WATCHDOG | Reported by ANDREW R. JONES
July 29, 2024
At a June 5 campaign stop outside Mission Hospital, Attorney General and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Josh Stein declared support for the Mission nurses union, which is in bargaining talks for a better contract. // Watchdog photo by Andrew R. Jones
The following article by Andrew R. Jones appeared in Asheville Watchdog on July 29th, 2024
The North Carolina attorney general’s office is requesting that the state health department deny HCA Healthcare-owned Mission Hospital’s application to add 26 acute care beds in Buncombe County, according to a letter obtained Monday by Asheville Watchdog.
“The Department of Health and Human Services… should deny Mission’s application,” the four-page July 29 letter from the state Department of Justice stated. “Any grant of a Certificate of Need should promote competition and advance the State Medical Facility Plan’s basic principles of safety, quality, access, and value. Granting Mission’s application would do neither.”
The letter emphasizes Mission’s deficiencies related to failures documented in a U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services finding in February that the hospital was in immediate jeopardy, putting it at risk of losing federal funding.
“Mission has endangered its patients,” the letter stated.
The letter comes after Mission, AdventHealth, and Novant Health submitted Certificate of Need applications to create the beds, which would also serve Yancey, Madison, and Graham counties. The letter was written by Kevin Anderson, the NCDOJ’s senior counsel for consumer protection and multi-state litigation, to Ena Lightbourne, an analyst with the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services’ Division of Health Service Regulation and lead for the bed application process.
Attorney General Josh Stein’s office declined to comment on the letter.
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Asheville Watchdog is a nonprofit news team producing stories that matter to Asheville and Buncombe County. Andrew R. Jones is a Watchdog investigative reporter. Email arjones@avlwatchdog.org.
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