Mission Hospital is trying to keep acute care beds it gave up when it closed Asheville Specialty Hospital late last year, but a 22-year-old legal document prohibits it from doing so.
A Nov. 29 letter from Nashville law firm Holland & Knight to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, obtained by Asheville Watchdog, states that Mission Health wants to find a way to preserve the beds for Mission Hospital.
Before its closing, ASH was the only long-term acute care hospital (LTACH) in western North Carolina. The hospital was licensed for 34 acute care beds — nine high-observation ones and 25 progressive care ones — at the time of closure.
Four days after The Watchdogrevealed that Mission planned to close ASH, Holland & Knight’s letter, signed by Hannah Ketring Brown, formally notified NCDHHS’ Division of Health Service Regulation (DHSR) that Mission wouldn’t seek to renew the ASH license while stating its intention to keep the beds.
“[T]he Hospital is working with your Department and your Department’s legal counsel to determine whether there is a way to preserve the Hospital’s beds and convert them back to acute care beds at Mission Hospital, even though the Hospital does not plan to see patients at this location [ASH] again (the “Potential Conversion Plan”),” the Holland & Knight letter states.
But Mission’s effort to retain the 34 acute care beds may be futile because the original CON awarded to Mission in 2002 — when there were 38 beds in ASH — mandates that if ASH were closed, the system would lose the beds.
“If the 38-bed long-term care hospital ceases to operate, Memorial Mission Hospital, Inc. d/b/a Mission St. Joseph’s Hospital (lessor) and MSJHS and CCP Joint Development Company, LLC d/b/a Mission CarePartners Specialty Hospital (lessee) shall take the steps necessary to delicense the 38 acute care beds used for the long-term acute care hospital, and shall not add them to the number of licensed acute care beds in Mission St. Joseph’s Hospital,” the CON states.
The Watchdog sent the Holland & Knight letter and the 2002 CON award to Mission Health spokesperson Nancy Lindell along with several questions about the hospital’s intentions.
“I have nothing further on this,” Lindell said.
The Watchdog also sent the documents to NCDHHS, which acknowledged receipt of the letter.
“DHSR is reviewing with NC Department of Justice counsel. A response has not yet been provided to Holland & Knight nor Mission,” spokesperson Hannah Jones said.
Holland & Knight’s Ketring Brown did not respond to calls and an email.
According to emails The Watchdog obtained, another law firm, Baker Donelson, sought and received from NCDHHS a 136-page CON application, created in 2001, for ASH. That request took place between late October and late November, and did not mention Mission’s plans to close ASH, which were not public at the time.
The Baker Donelson lawyer who requested the CON application did not respond to calls and an email.
For years Mission Health has been locked in battle with competing hospital companies for acute care beds, making two unsuccessful attempts through the state’s Certificate of Need (CON) process to boost its count.
The DHSR awarded beds to AdventHealth twice, for a total of 93, over two years. AdventHealth plans to build a hospital in Weaverville, creating the first hospital competition in Buncombe County since Memorial Mission Hospital merged with Asheville’s St. Joseph’s Hospital in 1998.
Mission has appealed both DHSR decisions, and its latest appeal of the awarding of 26 beds to AdventHealth has stalled the Weaverville hospital’s construction, as the Watchdog previously reported.
State says it learned of ASH closing through the media
There were 15-20 patients at ASH when Tropical Storm Helene hit, according to email exchanges between NCDHHS employees obtained by The Watchdog. All were transferred out of the hospital, and Mission soon decided to close the facility for good.
Later, as The Watchdog first reported, Mission Hospital CEO Greg Lowe told Mission employees it planned to demolish the building that housed ASH, which was the historic St. Joseph’s Hospital. The building was in poor condition and damage was exacerbated by Helene, Lindell told The Watchdog in December.
Following the news of ASH’s closure and planned demolition, Buncombe residents contacted NCDHHS, frustrated with the decision and wondering whether the shuttering broke the 2019 asset purchase agreement, which included commitments HCA made to keep facilities open for at least 10 years after it bought Mission Health for $1.5 billion.
“From and after such two (2)-year period, buyer shall have the right to discontinue any LTAC (Long-term Acute Care) Service at the St. Joseph campus of Mission Hospital (Asheville, North Carolina),” the APA states, making it clear that the closure did not violate the agreement.
Former NCDHHS Chief Deputy Secretary for Health Mark T. Benton responded to one Buncombe resident in a short email discussing ASH’s closure.
“I’m sorry that you were told that NCDHHS had prior knowledge of and provided its approval to the closure of HCA-Mission’s LTACH,” Benton said. “[T]hat isn’t true. We learned of its permanent closure likely at the same time as you – when it was reported by the media. Even so, their notification did not violate either state or federal law which requires hospitals to notify both levels of government when they close.”
Benton, who retired at the end of 2024, told the resident he wished there had been more conversation before the closure.
“I’m sorry about the closure of this LTACH and wish that we could have talked with HCA-Mission before a final decision/announcement was made,” Benton wrote.“Perhaps I’m an optimist, but I wonder if we could have – together – identified an option to keep some or all of it open. Even so, my team will stay in contact with our colleagues in Buncombe County and others in western NC to monitor this situation.”
Asheville Watchdog is a nonprofit news team producing stories that matter to Asheville and Buncombe County. Andrew R. Jones is a Watchdog investigative reporter. Email arjones@avlwatchdog.org. The Watchdog’s local reporting is made possible by donations from the community. To show your support for this vital public service go to avlwatchdog.org/support-our-publication/.
www.thecentersquare.com – By Alan Wooten | The Center Square – (The Center Square – ) 2025-04-05 08:13:00
(The Center Square) – Hugo and Helene are rare, as is the ever-dangerous tornado outbreaks that sometimes plague the South. Charlotte, regardless of frequency, remains in a dangerous gap every day.
U.S. Rep. Tim Moore, R-N.C.
Moore.House.gov
U.S. Rep. Tim Moore, R-N.C., has introduced the Radar Gap Elimination Act as a vehicle to close it. Bipartisan support includes Reps. Deborah Ross, D-N.C., and Pat Harrigan, R-N.C.
Charlotte is among the nation’s 15 largest cities by population. Moore’s proposal would bring modernization to the National Weather Service, he says, and “close dangerous gaps in high-risk areas like Charlotte.”
“The devastation of Hurricane Helene showed us just how important accurate weather data is to saving lives and hardening communities to minimize damage from upcoming storms and natural disasters,” Moore said. “Charlotte is one of the most populated regions in the country without full radar coverage, creating a blind spot that puts families at risk and hampers emergency response. I’m proud to lead the Radar Gap Elimination Act to close these critical gaps by prioritizing new radar in underserved areas and transitioning to new technology that can better detect severe weather.”
In a release, Moore said House Resolution 2646 “directs the National Weather Service to replace aging NEXRAD radar infrastructure and prioritize the deployment of Phased Array Radar in locations that are more than 75 miles from existing radar coverage. These upgrades will allow meteorologists to detect severe weather closer to the ground, particularly in areas where traditional radar fails to capture low-level storm activity.”
The National Weather Service is in evaluation of a new radar system replacing the Next-Generation Radar system, colloquially called NEXRAD. Moore said it is estimated PAR stations could be built by the end of the decade.
NEXRAD gets blind spots from the curvature of the Earth. For example, a distant NEXRAD station will have trouble on flash flood-causing storms, and F0 and F1 tornadoes at lower altitudes, a release says. That delays warnings and jeopardizes life, Moore said.
Ross said, “Every second counts when severe weather strikes, and this legislation will close the dangerous radar gap in our state and modernize our radar systems, ensuring our communities aren’t left in the dark when extreme weather hits.”
by Sarah Michels, Carolina Public Press April 5, 2025
More than 61,000 voters challenged by NC Supreme Court candidate Jefferson Griffin have 15 business days to prove their eligibility, or have their ballots removed from the count in Griffin’s 2024 bid to unseat Justice Allison Riggs, according to a Friday ruling from a three-judge panel of the NC Court of Appeals.
After all votes were tallied in November, the contest came down to 734 votes, with incumbent Riggs, a Democrat, in the lead. Soon thereafter, Griffin, a Republican Court of Appeals judge, asked for recounts and filed election protests.
The recounts maintained Rigg’s lead, while the State Board of Elections dismissed the protests.
Since then, Griffin’s legal challenges and countering lawsuits from Riggs have made their way through state and federal courts on their path to a delayed resolution while Riggs retains her seat.
Friday, the most significant decision in the case came down from two Republican justices on the North Carolina Court of Appeals. In a 2-1 decision from the panel, the court declared that Griffin’s protests were valid.
Incomplete voter registrations
The panel majority ruled that the largest portion of challenged voters, those who have “incomplete voter registrations” without a driver’s license or Social Security number included in their elections records, are ineligible to vote because they were not registered to vote correctly.
The blame lies squarely on the State Boards of Elections, which did not update voter registration form to make that information required in accordance with the federal Help America Vote Act, the panel majority opinion states.
Once the issue was identified in 2023, the State Board issued a new registration form, but didn’t go back and contact registrants who didn’t list a driver’s license or Social Security number, or check a box saying they had neither to be assigned a unique identification number.
Now, the appellate court panel says those voters are ineligible. The majority emphasized that the court has the right to remove ballots cast by these voters from the count, but is choosing not to do so immediately.
Instead, they are returning the case to the Wake County Superior Court, and instructing them to tell the State Board to contact impacted voters to provide them an opportunity to fill in the missing information. If voters do so within 15 business days of notification, their votes will count. If not, they will be removed from the count for the Supreme Court race, but not other races.
Overseas and military photo ID
The court panel ruled similarly on Griffin’s second protest, which challenged overseas and military voters who did not provide photo identification with their absentee ballots.
During legal proceedings, the State Board has argued that under the state’s Uniform Military and Overseas Voters Act, overseas and military voters are exempt from the voter ID requirement. UMOVA is contained in a separate statute from the one including photo ID requirements, and the Board argued that was intentional.
The appellate court panel disagreed. It ruled that the two statutes were intended to be read together, and that all voters are subject to the photo ID requirement.
Again, implicated voters have 15 business days to provide photo identification or an exception form, or be removed from the count.
In his dissent, Judge Toby Hampson, the loan Democrat on the panel, said providing time to fix these issues does not make up for the fact that impacted voters followed the rules available to them at the time.
“The proposition that a significant portion of these 61,682 voters will receive notice and timely take curative measures is a fiction that does not disguise the act of mass disenfranchisement the majority’s decision represents,” Hampson wrote.
Panel nixes ‘Never Residents’
North Carolina law includes an exception to the state constitution’s residency requirement for a small subset of voters labeled “Never Residents:” overseas U.S. citizens who were born outside the country and whose parents or legal guardians’ last residence was North Carolina.
Friday, the appellate court ruled that statute ran afoul of the state Constitution, and voided the votes of Never Residents.
Panel dissent and equal protection issues
Hampson’s dissent had a few arguments that may be seen again in future litigation.
First, he questioned the timing of Griffin’s protests. The statutes and Board interpretations that are being challenged have been in existence for several election cycles.
The majority declared that eligibility is determined as of Election Day, Hampson noted.
“Despite professing this basic tenet, the majority changes the rules of the 2024 election — and only for one race — months after election day,” he wrote. “It does so even though there is no actual showing or forecast that any challenged voter was not registered or otherwise unqualified to vote.”
Second, Hampson objected to which votes are being challenged. All protests include only early and absentee voters, since that was the information Griffin had available at the time he filed them.
Additionally, the overseas and military photo ID protest only includes Guilford County ballots.
“Each of these voters is at risk of being disenfranchised while similarly-situated voters are not, simply because of the county in which they reside, when they cast their ballot, or their physical location,” Hampson wrote.
What’s next after appeals panel?
The appellate decision may be key in determining the ultimate outcome of the race.
Riggs has already declared her intention to appeal the decision to the North Carolina Supreme Court, calling it a “deeply misinformed decision that threatens to disenfranchise more than 65,000 lawful voters and sets a dangerous precedent, allowing disappointed politicians to thwart the will of the people.”
However, if the North Carolina Supreme Court comes to a very possible 3-3 tie, the appellate court’s decision would be the one that stands. Either way, if the state high court fails to take the case or acts to leave the panel’s ruling in place, Riggs’ legal team has indicated it will likely return the case to the federal courts on equal protection grounds.
The State Board also issued a statement saying that they would comply with the order, if it goes into effect.
“Regardless of the ultimate outcome of this ongoing legal dispute, any voter who is concerned that their voter registration information is incomplete or is not up to date should submit an updated voter registration form,” the statement read.
Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin was less neutral.
“This partisan decision has no legal basis and is an all-out assault on our democracy and the basic premise that voters decide who wins their elections, not the courts,” he said in a statement. “If upheld, this could allow politicians across the country to overturn the will of the people.”
While Griffin has stayed mum since November, North Carolina Republican Chairman Jason Simmons called the ruling a “victory for the rule of law and election integrity” in a social media post.
“This decision and order finally holds the N.C. State Board of Elections accountable for their actions and confirms every legal vote will be counted in this contest,” he wrote.
SUMMARY: Republican Judge Jefferson Griffin is contesting over 60,000 votes in his race against Democratic Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs, claiming registration and ID deficiencies. A 2-1 NC Court of Appeals ruling, with Republican judges siding with Griffin, allows voters 15 business days to correct issues. Riggs, leading by 734 votes after two recounts, vowed to appeal, warning the ruling threatens over 65,000 lawful votes. Griffin also challenges military and overseas ballots. The GOP praised the decision; Democrats condemned it as partisan. The state Supreme Court, with a 5-2 Republican majority, will likely hear the appeal. Riggs has recused herself.
