Attorney General Josh Stein Sues HCA Healthcare

Raleigh -- Press Release Attorney General Josh Stein's Office:  December 14, 2023

Attorney General Josh Stein today sued HCA Healthcare for failing to comply with the Asset Purchase Agreement it executed when it purchased Mission Health System in 2019. Attorney General Stein alleges that HCA is not providing the quality, consistent emergency and cancer care for western North Carolinians it committed to deliver. Attorney General Stein released the following statement:

“For-profit HCA has broken its promise to the people of western North Carolina and to my office. Quality health care is too important – in some cases, a matter of life and death. But HCA apparently cares more about its profits than its patients.

“The doctors, nurses, and medical staff at Mission HCA have worn themselves to the bone trying to care for patients without the necessary resources or support. They deserve our gratitude, but they and their patients also deserve better. I’m taking HCA to court to make sure it lives up to the agreement it made when it bought non-profit Mission in 2019. That’s what the people of western North Carolina deserve.”

When HCA purchased Mission, Attorney General Stein negotiated additional health care protections for patients because he was concerned that HCA would cut critical services that the community needs. HCA promised not to discontinue emergency and trauma services or oncology services at Mission Hospital until at least 2029.

Over the last several years, the North Carolina Department of Justice has heard from hundreds of North Carolinians about the issues at HCA and received more than 500 complaints. Patients specifically have raised concerns about emergency and trauma services and oncology services.

Attorney General Stein is asking the court to order HCA to restore emergency and trauma services and oncology services to the level Mission Hospital provided before HCA took over.

To see the following, click the link below

A copy of the complaint is available here. Additional filings
A fact sheet on this matter 
A timeline on the HCA-Mission agreement and lawsuit 
More details on patient experiences and complaints a list of communications between the Attorney General’s Office, Dogwood Health Trust, and HCA related to concerns about services 

Click here