The North Carolina Court of Appeals rejected AdventHealth Hendersonville’s (N.C.) challenge of regulators’ decision to award Asheville, N.C.-based Mission Health a certificate-of-need approval to develop a free-standing emergency department in Candler, Carolina Coast Online reported March 5.
Appellate judges ruled in 2024 that regulators had failed to properly follow procedures when they did not hold a public hearing before issuing the Candler ED approval to Mission Health, according to the report. The court also determined that the error did not necessarily amount to substantial prejudice against AdventHealth.
A state administrative law judge was not convinced that AdventHealth had suffered the type of prejudice that would allow for a successful CON challenge.
“Here, the ALJ’s award of summary judgment to Mission and DHHS was proper because AdventHealth failed to meet its burden of showing substantial prejudice,” Judge John Arrowood wrote for a unanimous three-judge panel, according to the report. “The evidence that AdventHealth presented about the harm arising from not holding an in-person hearing is hypothetical and fails to demonstrate specific, actual harm.”
The Appeals Court rejected arguments that Mission’s CON would lead to lost revenue and reduced services for AdventHealth.
“[T]his Court has already held that quantifications of lost revenue and the resulting compromise of certain services are not sufficient to show substantial prejudice” in two precedent cases, Mr. Arrowood wrote. “AdventHealth has not demonstrated that its evidence of harm is significantly dissimilar to those cases.”
