HCA Healthcare has filed a motion with the North Carolina Business Court, asking it to dismiss claims from the North Carolina attorney general that the for-profit hospital operator violated its 2019 asset purchase agreement for Asheville, N.C.-based Mission Health System, according to local news outlets.
In December, North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein filed a lawsuit against HCA, alleging it failed to meet obligations under its asset purchase agreement of Mission Health by cutting certain emergency and cancer services at Mission Hospital. HCA bought Mission Health for $1.5 billion in 2019, and under the APA, it agreed not to discontinue certain services in the decade following the sale.
The state's lawsuit claims HCA has not continued to provide the same level of emergency and trauma services and oncology services at Mission. Specifically, the complaint alleges HCA does not employ any medical oncologists at Mission Cancer Center, has reduced the number of oncology beds and no longer meets the standards of a level 2 trauma center.
HCA denied the allegations in its response to the court and asked that claims of a breach of contract be dismissed, Blue Ridge Public Radio and the Citizen Times reported.
"This legal dispute is about a contract and whether it has been reached," attorneys for HCA said in the filing. "The Hospital Service Commitments are simple and clear: they require that HCA must continue certain service lines that existed in January 2019. HCA has absolutely done so."
The filing also denied claims surrounding inadequate staffing levels in the ED and in the oncology department, stating that, "Although Mission cannot control all variables, such as when staff unexpectedly call out from scheduled shifts, Mission strives to minimize wait times in its emergency department" and that "certain shifts may have higher nurse to patient ratios" when staff call out unexpectedly.
Even in those situations, Mission "complies with applicable trauma care regulations and emergency services remain available, consistent with the contractual obligations set out in the APA," attorneys said in the filing.
"We are confident that Mission has fulfilled its obligations under the Asset Purchase Agreement, and we intend to defend the lawsuit filed by the Attorney General aggressively," a Mission Health spokesperson said in a statement sent to Becker's. "The pleadings that we filed speak for themselves. Unfortunately, the lawsuit continues to be a distraction from the important work that Mission continues to do in Western North Carolina."
HCA's response to the attorney general's lawsuit comes as it works to address deficiencies and remove an immediate jeopardy status federal regulators recently placed on Mission Hospital. The hospital met a Feb. 6 deadline CMS had set for it to submit a plan of correction indicating how it will come back into compliance with regulations related to its governing body, emergency services, nursing services, patients' rights, quality assurance and laboratory services.
Submitting a correction plan was a key step in ensuring the hospital has the opportunity to come back into compliance and avoid the loss of federal funding, a CMS spokesperson previously told Becker's. If the plan is accepted, inspectors with the North Carolina Department of Public Health will conduct another survey to evaluate whether immediate jeopardy conditions have been removed. In that case, the hospital will have 90 days to complete specific corrective actions and regain compliance with the regulations.