Several nonprofit health systems in North Carolina are working to gain primary care market share in the region amid HCA Healthcare's retreat, the Hendersonville Lightning reported July 18.
Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare took over Asheville, N.C.-based Mission Health in 2019. Since its takeover, nearly 100 physicians have left the health system and several primary care clinics were shuttered.
The physicians who left have joined other health systems in the area, including Pardee Hospital in Hendersonville, AdventHealth Hendersonville or Duke LifePoint, a joint venture that serves North Carolina. Several of these physicians also left to join a federally qualified health center or created a new independent practice.
Pardee, AdventHealth and DukeLifePoint have been able to use HCA's retreat to gain market share in the primary care market and expand their footprints, according to the report.
"Advent and Pardee are taking this opportunity as a striking one to grow and absorb primary care practices," Ben Aiken, MD, a primary care physician in Asheville who left HCA told the Lightning. "They are really kind of trying to position themselves as a more direct competitor, if you will, to Mission or HCA, and from the outside, it seems they are having some success in doing so."
Although several HCA primary care clinics have closed, a Mission Health spokesperson told the Lightning that it still employs more than 100 primary care providers and has 20 primary care locations in Western North Carolina. The spokesperson also said that it offers primary care virtually.
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