North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein asked the state Department of Health and Human Services to deny HCA Healthcare-owned Mission Hospital's application to expand in Buncombe County, according to a July 25 report from the Citizen-Times.
Mission Hospital is competing with two nonprofit hospital systems, AdventHealth and Novant Health, for a certificate of need to build a facility to accommodate 67 new beds in the county.
Mr. Stein said that the lack of competition negatively affects residents of Western North Carolina.
"Mission has almost no competition for acute care in Buncombe County. The lack of competition is the result of Mission’s unique history. Mission effectively operated as a legislatively authorized monopoly for over twenty years, and no new hospitals have opened even after Mission’s arrangement with the State ended in 2016," Mr. Stein said in a letter to the health and human services department.
The three hospital systems submitted their CONs in June and a public comment period opened July 1. The Department of Health and Human Services is expected to decide on the CONs in the coming months, according to the report.