From acquisition activity to a lawsuit from North Carolina's attorney general, here are 10 updates on Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare Becker's reported in 2023.
1. North Carolina's attorney general is suing HCA Healthcare, alleging the for-profit hospital operator cut emergency and cancer care at Asheville, N.C.-based Mission Health System and lapsed on its 2019 purchase agreement in doing so.
2. HCA Healthcare's Medical City Healthcare in Dallas completed its acquisition of three-hospital Wise Health System in Texas. Medical City Healthcare is now a 19-hospital system with the addition of Decatur, Texas-based Wise Health System's three inpatient hospitals.
3. HCA is buying bankrupt Trinity Regional Hospital Sachse (Texas) for $41 million in a deal that is expected to close by the end of January.
4. HCA is investing $5.3 billion in already approved projects. Included in that figure, the health system approved outpatient projects to build freestanding emergency centers and ASCs, totaling $1 billion, and has an additional 200 projects under consideration. HCA is aiming to grow its freestanding ER footprint by 36% over the next two years.
5. HCA reported $1.63 billion in third-quarter operating income on revenues of $16.21 billion, but the company's results were "unfavorably impacted" by its Valesco physician staffing joint venture, which "performed below expectations," CEO Sam Hazen said.
6. The Virginia State Health Commissioner shut down HCA Healthcare's proposal to build a $234 million hospital in Hanover County, Va. Vanessa MacLeod, an adjudication officer for the state health department, said HCA "has not demonstrated an institutional need for its proposed project."
7. HCA started using generative artificial intelligence technology from Google to document emergency room visits and speed up nurse handoffs.
8. HCA has been ramping up its acquisition of urgent care facilities in recent years as care continues to move toward outpatient settings where there is an emphasis on lower costs, higher quality and more convenience for patients.
9. Higher-ups within HCA Healthcare allegedly place pressure on staff in hospitals to persuade patients' families to initiate end-of-life care, which can limit treatments for patients but curb in-hospital mortality rates and length of stay for the hospital operator, according to claims made in a NBC News report.
HCA spokesperson Ed Fishbough denied the claims in the following statement to Becker's:
"While NBC News admits there is no tangible support for their claims, the suggestion that medical care in HCA Healthcare hospitals is based on anything other than a physician’s independent medical judgment is not true, and it is irresponsible."
10. HCA is facing a lawsuit for a recent data theft incident that affected 171 hospitals and health systems across the U.S. and may have breached information of about 11 million patients. The lawsuit, filed by Gary Silvers and Richard Marous on July 12 in the Tennessee Middle District Court, alleges the health system was negligent in safeguarding patients' protected health information.