From Staff Reports 

ASHEVILLE – An independent monitor — assigned to help ensure HCA Healthcare complies with the terms of its 2019 purchase of Mission Health — met with community members May 13 to provide updates on its work and answer questions, the Asheville Citizen Times reported on May 15.

More than 60 people attended the May 13 meeting held by Boston-based Affiliated Monitors Inc. on the campus of A-B Tech. AMI was named purchase deal’s independent monitor in 2024, replacing Gibbins Advisers of Nashville, which had been appointed monitor in October 2019. 

The independent monitor is paid for by Dogwood Health Trust, a nonprofit grant-making organization responsible for ensuring HCA follows 15 commitments outlined as part of its $1.5 billion acquisition of Mission Health.

“As monitors, Dogwood Health Trust made it clear to us that they want us to engage with the community as well — to hear from the community what your concerns are, to hear how the merger is affecting you in your daily lives,” Gerald Coyne, AMI’s managing director, told those in attendance, the ACT stated.

The newspaper added that, “so far, HCA has completed five of the 15 commitments, including spending $232 million in general capital expenditure, building a replacement hospital for Angel Medical Center in Franklin and building a new 120-bed behavioral health facility in Asheville, all within the first five years after the sale.

“Other commitments, such as keeping material facilities m — open for at least 10 years and not discontinuing specific services for at least 10 years — are still in progress. 

“Questions around the latter are currently being litigated in state court after then-Attorney General Josh Stein filed suit in 2023, alleging the for-profit health system is failing to provide the level of emergency and cancer care it agreed to when it purchased Mission Health.”

The ACT also noted, “Coyne said one of the commitments AMI is following closely is HCA’s charity care polic. It’s also following whether HCA remains in good standing with Medicare and Medicaid programs. In 2024, Mission Hospital was put into ‘immediate jeopardy’ status by regulators, threatening its reimbursements under the two programs. The hospital soon filed a ‘Plan of Correction’ to fix the deficiencies and was later found to be back in compliance.”