Guest columnist Julie Mayfield’s public call to CEO Sam Hazen (Feb. 15, 2026) “HCA must fix Mission Hospital’s safety issues”) ignores the fact that the Frist family is the principal owner of Mission Hospital; Sam is merely a managerial agent.
Principal owners separated from agent managers do not earn income through salary or wages but rather through passive accrual of wealth obtained through shareholding. As of Feb. 16, 2025, combined wealth of the principal owner including Dr. Thomas F. Frist Jr., Thomas F. Frist III, and William R. Frist is $41.9 billion (beckersasc). Through ownership stakes, these men and family beneficiaries (Robert A. Frist, Dorothy F. Boensch, Mary F. Barfield, etc.) climb in rank as one of the wealthiest families in the world (Forbes). They are the primary beneficiaries of our hospital’s operating profits, their wealth amassed through increases in stock prices, dividends, the acquisition, appreciation and sale of assets, and corporate accounting tricks to reduce taxes and enhance dynastic wealth.
The Frist family is benefiting handsomely from their 2021 purchase of our hospital monopoly through Frist Group/ Frist Entities’ Frisco Holding II LP (directly owns over 16.3%) and Holding II LP (owns 14.4% of all shares outstanding) totaling 70.6 million shares; On Feb. 6, 2026, Frisco Holding II exchanged 36,629,188 existing HCA shares for 36,557,141 newly issued shares from HCA, in a transaction treated as a tax-free reorganization and partnership conversion (Stocktitan)…