(Mountain Xpress) Released today, audits from the past 5 years show Mission Health has complied fully with regulations outlined in the state-issued Certificate of Public Advantage.
“It’s clear that we’ve been as compliant as one could realistically get with the COPA,” Mission CEO/President Ron Paulus told members of the media. “Whatever questions people have raised, they’ve now been definitively answered.”
These questions usually concern whether or not Mission Health is acting as a monopoly. One group, the WNC Community Healthcare Initative, calls Mission’s behaviors “aggressive.” However, Paulus says he hopes these reports will silence the naysayers.
“For those who have raised conners, we have been reviewed and completely identified as being 100 percent compliant,” Paulus said.
Issued by the state in 1995, the COPA allowed Mission to merge with St. Joseph’s Hospital — but only if Mission agreed to state regulation. Voluntarily, Mission agreed and has been in the agreement ever since. However, earlier this year, Mission Health urged the House Select Committee on the Certificate of Need Process and Hospital Issues to reconsider.
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