Mission Inhospitable | HCA, NDAs and For-Profit Healthcare

The Hospital Corporation of America purchased the nonprofit Mission Hospital four years ago in a deal shrouded in secrecy. Since then, hundreds of doctors, nurses and support staff have resigned. North Carolina’s attorney general has joined them in protesting what they see as an unflinching profits-over-people business model. 

The Asheville Watchdog has written many stories detailing much of the decimation of Asheville’s once-vaunted hospital. Recently, the Watchdog’s executive editor, Peter Lewis, wrote an extensive column that asks “What can be done?”

Lewis walks us through a purchase that, from every angle, appears nefarious. We talk about HCA’s anti-competitive actions and some missed opportunities to place certain quality-of-care guardrails on the sale. We also run through a range of ideas and options for influencing how HCA manages Mission Hospital.