Court won’t hear appeal on new Buncombe hospital

The North Carolina Supreme Court has delivered a key ruling against HCA in the ongoing Certificate of Need battle in Weaverville, according to AdventHealth’s lawyers. The development may mean that AdventHealth can begin construction on a new Asheville-area hospital immediately, despite opposition from HCA. 

Over the years, the state has repeatedly identified a need for more hospital beds in Buncombe County — and each time, it has awarded those beds to Florida-based AdventHealth, which also operates a hospital in nearby Henderson County. 

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But Mission Health, operated by the Tennessee-based for-profit HCA, has a near-monopoly on health care in parts of the North Carolina mountains and is fighting to keep AdventHealth out of the Asheville market. Each time the state awards AdventHealth a certificate of need, HCA appeals.

These legal battles have delayed the arrival of expanded health care services in Asheville for years. 

Now, the state Supreme Court has rejected HCA’s appeal of the original 67-bed need awarded to AdventHealth in 2021. AdventHealth’s lawyers delivered this news to the hospital system on Friday. 

“That means the case is over and they (AdventHealth) can start building the hospital,” State Sen. Julie Mayfield, D-Buncombe, told Carolina Public Press.

The court had not yet issued a public announcement of this development prior to publication of this article, but had notified AdventHealth’s legal team, the company confirmed. AdventHealth is still trying to figure out exactly what it means. One complicating factor is that HCA has appealed another 26-bed CONs for this same facility, and those are still active. 

“We’ve been hoping for this answer,” Victoria Dunkle, spokesperson for AdventHealth, told CPP. 

“I don’t know the specifics of what that means for the next steps and how soon we can take them. We have been working under the understanding that once this last potential was through, we would be getting the CON in hand, and that’s when we can start the actual work on the hospital. But I don’t know when that CON is going to be in hand.”

Mayfield believes that this development removes the final roadblock to hospital construction. Even if the other 26-bed CON is still not available to AdventHealth due to the ongoing appeal process, the company can build the facility to allow for easy expansion. 

To make matters more complicated, a need for an additional 129 beds in Buncombe County was announced this summer. 

HCA, AdventHealth, UNC Health, and Novant Health are all competing for that CON. Whoever it goes to, it will doubtless be appealed. The state, and the public, will hear each hospital’s proposal in a public hearing on Dec. 16 at 10 a.m. at Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College.

HCA did not respond to a request for comment for this article prior to publication.

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