In an April 16 ruling, a North Carolina judge has denied HCA Healthcare’s attempt to limit the scope of a lawsuit it is facing related to the for-profit health system’s $1.5 billion acquisition of Asheville’s Mission Hospital in 2019.
A ruling in HCA’s favor would have likely expedited the case by narrowing what the company would be forced to produce during discovery in the lawsuit filed against it by North Carolina’s then-Attorney General Josh Stein.
In his December 2023 complaint, Stein, now governor, claimed the Nashville-based health system breached the terms of its purchase of Mission Health by not continuing to provide the level of emergency and trauma care, and oncology services, set forth in an amended asset purchase agreement…