From Staff Reports

HCA Healthcare, which owns Asheville-based Mission Health, “faces another federal lawsuit accusing the company of not properly compensating its workers.”Asheville television station WLOS (News 13) reported on May 2.

“The class and collective action suit was filed on Thursday, April 25, in the Western District of North Carolina,” News 13 noted. “According to court documents, the plaintiffs accuse HCA of rounding the times they clocked in and out to the nearest half hour.

“They claim their time cards were submitted to payroll with inaccurate hours, meaning they were not paid for the whole time they worked or properly compensated for overtime,” the TV station stated.

Meanwhile, the Daily Planet contacted Nancy Lindell, division director of public and media relations for Mission Health, asking for her comment on local news media reports stating that HCA Healthcare ‘faces another federal lawsuit accusing the company of not properly compensating its workers.’”

In response, Lindell sent the the following statement:

“Regarding the lawsuit, we are not commenting on this ongoing litigation.”

The Daily Planet also asked Lindell to comment on Novant Health’s plans to seek approval to build a 26-bed cancer hospital in South Asheville — as to whether she thinks it even is needed. if she thinks the timing is unusual (given the sudden entrance into the Asheville market of several health care competitors), and if she thinks that Mission Health is unduly under fire from local and staff officials.

In response, Lindell sent the following statement: 

“Mission Health remains committed to providing theregion’s most advanced healthcare and will continue to take our community’s evolving health needs into account as we look to the future.”

Meanwhile, News 13 reported that “the for-profit hospital-owner  also faces a lawsuit from North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein over claims that HCA failed to comply with the terms of the Asset Purchase Agreement” when it bought Mission Hospital in 2019.

What’s more, News 13 noted in its May 2 report that it has contacted HCA Healthcare for comment, “but has not heard back.” 

On News 13’s “comment bubble” after its story on HCA Healthcare’s lawsuit were the following responses:

• WeAreAllDoomed — “Well, I guess this helps explain how HCA beat Wall Street expectations in both earnings per share and overall profits. Good for them. Really bad for us.”

• terraformis — “If you have been keeping up with all this, there was actually a study done by some economics professor at Wake Forest that determined that a large part of Mission’s profit came from decreased staffing since covid started.  So, yeah, just like nearly every for profit business in the country it is corrupt to the core.”  

• Xhilr8n – “The robots that operate these for-profits only know numbers, that’s all they can ever know. Nothing will change them other than a forced restructuring. Money is their only language. They need to be brought to their knees monetarily and then get actual humans to run the company.”