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A recently unsealed lawsuit alleges HCA Healthcare and its medical staffing company partner, Team Health, backed by private equity giant Blackstone Group, are overcharging patients. 

According to the complaint, HCA Healthcare and Team Health intentionally inflated medical bills through medically unnecessary trauma alerts and unneeded tests, including CT scans, blood samples, and X-rays. The lawsuit accuses both companies of systematic fraud against state and federal healthcare programs like Medicare and Medicaid, violating the False Claims Act.

This lawsuit is not the first legal action in Tennessee against Team Health for over billing. Last November, Buncombe County alleged Team Health improperly coded emergency room patients, over billing patients for more complex medical treatments than they actually received. 

Sources:

https://avlwatchdog.org/doctors-lawsuit-hca-healthcare-and-teamhealth-overcharged-patients/

https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/65776162/1/buncombe-county-north-carolina-v-team-health-holdings-inc/

In late June, nearly 2000 nurses at three Ascension hospitals in Texas and Kansas held the largest nurses’ strike in both states’ histories, protesting the Catholic health care giant’s unsafe staffing practices. 

In response, Ascension executives locked nurses out of the hospital for an additional three days. 

“We’re ready to go back to work, just like we’re ready to settle a contract that gives us what we need to take care of our patients,” said Marvin Ruckle, a neonatal intensive care unit RN at Ascension Via Christi St. Joseph. “Management’s efforts to bust our union won’t work. We unionized to fight for our patients, and these attempts to divide nurses aren’t going to stop us.”

Other unions, community members, and elected officials joined nurses on the picket lines at Austin’s Seton Medical Center and at Wichita’s Ascension Via Christi St. Francis and Ascension Via Christi St. Joseph, calling on Ascension executives to prioritize patient care and safe working conditions. 

Sources:

https://www.texastribune.org/2023/06/27/texas-nurses-strike/

https://www.kansas.com/news/local/article276793321.html

https://www.nationalnursesunited.org/press/rns-who-staged-historic-tx-and-ks-strikes-now-locked-out-by-ascension

Last week, dozens of HCA nurses protested outside the annual Frist Art Museum Gala in Nashville. The nurses, members of NNOC, handed out flyers to gala patrons with a reminder of the dismal record of the Frist family and the health care corporation it co-founded, all the while reaping enormous profits. 

HCA Healthcare, is the world’s largest and wealthiest hospital corporation, whose largest shareholders are the Frist family – founders of the museum and underwriters of the gala. Billy Frist, the chair of the Frist Art Museum and HCA executive board member, has remained silent as HCA has eroded community health care systems, cut patient services, and undermined safety protocols.

Source: https://www.nationalnursesunited.org/press/nurses-request-frist-gala-celebrants-to-encourage-frist-family-to-improve-HCA-healthcare-conditions

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has halted a proposed deal between HCA Healthcare and LCMC Health. Nurses oppose the sale of HCA’s three New Orleans hospitals to LCMC, which included the closure of Tulane Medical Center, and would leave many patients in downtown New Orleans without accessible health care.

 “Consolidation like this means service shutdowns, and anti-competitive business moves like this mean increased prices for our patients, who already struggle to get and afford the care that they need and deserve,” said Mea Ratcliff, RN, who works in Tulane’s Transplant Clinic. “Make no mistake, mergers and acquisitions like this only serve to increase profits for corporate healthcare at the expense of patients, nurses, and communities.”

Despite these concerns, Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry approved the deal at the end of 2022, granting a Certificate of Public Advantage (COPA), which shields states from federal oversight.

However, the FTC is alleging that LCMC and HCA defied federal law by closing LCMC’s acquisition of three local hospitals from HCA without reporting the deal to US antitrust authorities. Large healthcare organizations like HCA use COPA laws to monopolize health care, often resulting in higher prices and less access for patients, while executives and shareholders reap big profits. 

LCMC is barred from closing any of the three hospitals it acquired and must maintain all clinical services lines at the facilities while the case plays out.

Source: https://www.nola.com/news/business/lcmc-health-faces-antitrust-suit-over-tulane-hospital-deal/article_68967dfc-e147-11ed-acd2-9b9f8b18f312.html