Adults may qualify if they earn up to 138% of the federal poverty limit, which is about $20,000 a year for a single person and about $34,000 for a family of three.

Adults may qualify if they earn up to 138% of the federal poverty limit, which is about $20,000 a year for a single person and about $34,000 for a family of three.
The majority of the June 2 CIBO meeting focused on plans for the Sweeten Creek Mental Health and Wellness Center, a 120-bed hospital that will provide behavioral health services.
“They waste money instead of building sidewalks on every state and city road.”
AdventHealth has been approved to build a new hospital in Western North Carolina, the company announced on Facebook Nov. 22. Buncombe, Graham, Madison and Yancey counties will together have a projected need of 67 additional acute care beds by 2024, according to a plan published by the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services Division of Health […]
Three hospital systems — AdventHealth, HCA Healthcare/Mission Health and Novant Health — are jousting for the opportunity to build a facility in Western North Carolina. During an Aug. 12 public hearing at A-B Tech, members of the public got to voice their opinions on who should provide the area’s newest hospital beds. Buncombe, Graham, Madison […]
Asheville and Buncombe County filed a class-action lawsuit against HCA Healthcare and Mission Health on July 27 in U.S. District Court. The lawsuit alleges HCA is attempting to monopolize health care in Western North Carolina. “The Asheville City Council and the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners felt it was necessary to take this step to […]
Even at 8 a.m., June 2 was blazing hot outside Mission Hospital. Few trees lent little shade at the entrance to the complex. But the registered nurses who gathered that morning for a rally with National Nurses United are used to being on their feet for long periods of time in uncomfortable conditions. About 50 […]
“I totally agree that Council members and local government should have a major influence regarding another hospital facility in this area.”
Brevard officials hope other Western North Carolina local governments will join the city’s lawsuit alleging monopolistic practices by HCA Healthcare. None have, but none say they have ruled it out.
“We still have to work other jobs to make ends meet,” said Melanie Allen, a 26-year veteran of BCS’ technology department. “We’re struggling. We feel like nobody cares. Morale is low. We have watched other counties and agencies enable steps and raises. We’re keep thinking we’re next, that we’ll be able to make it. Then nothing happens.”
Three hospitals plan to file applications to build a new 67-bed hospital in Western North Carolina.
A letter drafted by Chair Brownie Newman and scheduled for a June 7 vote of approval by the full Board of Commissioners urges state regulators to favor nonprofit health care systems over HCA Healthcare, which owns Mission, when considering applications to build new hospital capacity.
HCA declined repeated requests for the number of doctors who have left the Mission system since it took over in February 2019 and refuses to say how many doctors are on staff today, other than that the number is “relatively the same.” But Asheville Watchdog identified 223 doctors who appear to be no longer practicing there.
A 2018 memo, obtained via a public records request from the N.C. Attorney General’s office, says the “deck had been stacked” in favor of selling Mission Health to HCA by then-CEO Dr. Ronald A. Paulus.
Hospitals suspend COVID-19 vaccination requirements Earlier this month, AdventHealth Hendersonville, Pardee UNC Health Care and Mission Health suspended requirements that employees become fully vaccinated against COVID-19, as per a federal Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services memorandum. CMS had issued an emergency regulation on Nov. 4 mandating that all eligible workers at Medicaid and Medicare-certified […]
“I am certain the French author would take no offense at a less talented voice borrowing his ‘J’Acuse’ model. What better way to challenge a home community that is similarly darkened by discounted vanities, harms and pretense?”
HCA Healthcare’s acquisition of Asheville-based Mission Health has driven a shakeup among physicians going to work elsewhere.
“I was left quite angry and hurt, asking: Is Mission incompetent? Unkind? Greedy? All of the above?”
Since investor-owned HCA Healthcare bought nonprofit Mission Health System in 2019, stories are increasingly common of long waits in the emergency room, unsanitary conditions, broken or missing equipment, patients having to lie in their own urine and feces, doctors leaving because of pay disputes and nurses weeping in the hallways because of stress and chronic understaffing.
2020 was the year of the nurse, proclaimed Greg Lowe, the president of HCA Healthcare’s North Carolina division. But Mission’s eight hospitals are now gearing up for a major nursing shortage, he told members of Asheville’s Council of Independent Business Owners.