A new firm, Affiliated Monitors, has been selected to oversee HCA Healthcare's compliance with commitments set forth in its 2019 purchase agreement of Asheville, N.C.-based Mission Health.
Affiliated Monitors took over independent monitoring services April 1, according to a news release from Dogwood Health Trust, the nonprofit established to oversee Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA's $1.5 billion acquisition of Mission Health, which was finalized in February 2019.
Early this year, Dogwood said it was searching for a new independent monitor due to a "change in the scope of work." That announcement came less than a month after North Carolina's attorney general sued HCA, alleging the health system lapsed on its purchase agreement by cutting certain emergency and cancer care services at 815-bed Mission Hospital, which is facing the potential loss of federal funding related to care deficiencies cited by CMS.
HCA and Mr. Stein both signed off on AMI as the new monitor, which is tasked with four primary responsibilities: evaluate HCA's annual report, educate and engage the community, engage with the attorney general's office, and continuous compliance evaluation.
"We are working to develop a full understanding of the issues that Dogwood, HCA, the North Carolina Attorney General's office, and the communities served by each of the hospitals have been facing," Vin DiCianni, president of AMI, said in a statement. "It will take dedicated efforts of all parties to make the objectives of the Asset Purchase Agreement successful. We look forward to working with the parties, stakeholders and community."
Nancy Landell, a spokesperson for Mission Health, said the system looks forward to working with the new independent monitor.
"We are confident that we have been and will remain in compliance with the asset purchase agreement," she said in the Dogwood news release.
Meanwhile, regulators have given the hospital a June 5 deadline for HCA Mission Hospital to fully implement accepted correction plans for care deficiencies it has been cited for and avert the loss of funding.