Lilly Knoepp/BPR News
Mission Health System celebrated a groundbreaking at the site of the new Angel Medical Center in Franklin.
The $68 million location will not have more beds than current hospital but the new space will have bigger rooms, and new technology and more windows explained Angel Medical Center Board of Trustees Chair Johnny Mira-Knippel.
“We’ve seen a major shift over the last several years to telemedicine, obviously recruiting the types of the physicians that we would need to service all the procedures that occur here is impossible. But with telemedicine we can bring advanced physicians locally to take more of our patients without having to send them away,” said Mira-Knippel. He is the president of TekTone Healthcare Communications. “The new facility is designed with that kind of facility in mind.”
One of the ways that the independent monitor answered questions about charity care is they explained that when Mission was being purchased by HCA they had the option to move forward with Mission’s charity care policy. And instead, the board at Mission felt that HCA’s policy was actually going to cover patients better. And so they did make changes to that charity care policy to go with HCA’s policy instead.
Here’s how Ron Winters, principal of Gibbins Advisors, talked about charity care at the virtual meeting:
“It is difficult to qualify for charity care, and until you qualify, they have the right to ask you to pay a deposit and you don’t have the right to get it back,” said Winters.
Concerns go unanswered during HCA monitor meeting
The public had a lot of questions during an April 7 virtual meeting regarding Mission Health’s services and operations since being bought by for-profit HCA Healthcare in 2019. Unfortunately, Gibbins Advisors the independent monitor hired to ensure HCA fulfills its contractual obligations couldn’t provide them with many answers.
While the team of healthcare experts and accountants with Gibbins Advisors say they are continuously monitoring HCA operations at Mission-affiliated hospitals in Western North Carolina, their contractual scope is limited to the 15 commitments outlined in the purchase agreement between Mission and HCA, which was ultimately signed off on by Attorney General Josh Stein.
When life as we knew it slammed to a sudden stop in mid-March of 2020, the novel coronavirus from Wuhan hadn’t yet infected a single resident of Western North Carolina, but with the virus continually expanding its territory since the United States’ first confirmed case on Jan. 21, 2020, it seemed only a matter of time.
Buncombe County confirmed its first case March 16 the patient was a visitor from New York who then traveled to Macon County to isolate followed by Cherokee County March 18. A part-time resident of Jackson County tested positive on March 23, and Haywood County reported its first cases on April 2. Testing from the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians confirmed the first cases in Swain and Graham counties on April 25 and 26.
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