Mission Health may donate as much as $90M to rural communities in HCA deal

Mission Health says it will give $30 million to $90 million to foundations in five rural Western North Carolina communities plus an Asheville-based one if its proposed sale to HCA Healthcare goes through.

Some of the gifts would benefit communities where residents have expressed concerns that the potential sale of Mission Health could cause local hospitals to close or make cutbacks.

Money would go to foundations that support hospitals in Brevard, Highlands and Spruce Pine that are part of Mission Health plus one that helps Asheville-based CarePartners, a provider of home health, rehabilitation and other health services in WNC. In addition, a foundation would be formed in Franklin, the other rural WNC town where Mission has a hospital, to receive up to $15 million.

Funds would come from sale proceeds

Mission announced on Monday its intention to make the gifts, which could amount to $15 million to each foundation over a three-year period. The money would come from proceeds of the sale of Mission Health to HCA, a Nashville, Tennessee, based company that is the largest for-profit operator of hospitals in the United States.

The foundations were formed primarily to support various facilities that are part of Mission Health. Federal tax law would make it difficult for the foundations to give money directly to the hospitals once they become part of a for-profit company, meaning the foundations will have to find new ways to spend to benefit their communities.

Mission’s announcement says they would be expected to use the money it gives the foundations to improve residents’ health.

Mission announced in March that it had agreed to be sold to HCA if the two sides could agree to terms of a deal. Those discussions are going on now.

“Throughout the due diligence process, Mission Health’s board has discussed various way to provide additional support for the communities served by our member entities,” said Dr. John Ball, chairman of the Mission Health board. The money will “benefit (rural) communities directly and locally,” he said.

There has been no announcement of the amount HCA would pay for Mission, but past statements by Mission officials suggest the amount is likely to be between $1 billion and $2 billion. Mission’s accountants gave the system’s value as $1.7 billion as of Sept. 30 last year.

Money tied to Dogwood goal

Dogwood Health Trust, a nonprofit, has been formed to receive whatever amount HCA ultimately pays. Mission officials say it will use earnings on the money to improve social determinants of health, a range of factors like poverty, access to healthy food and availability of places to exercise that affect people’s health.

The amount of money the foundations around WNC would get would depend on how well they pursue that goal.

Mission’s announcement says each foundation would get an initial $5 million. Subsequent gifts of $5 million in the second and third years after the sale would be dependent on each foundation’s “previous year’s progress and its commitment to continue to develop community capacity to improve the health and well-being of its citizens … including a focus on the local social determinants of health.”

Mission Health System Foundation, which supports Mission Hospital and the health system, is not one of the intended recipients. Donors will be given the option of rolling over any unspent gifts made to that foundation to Dogwood Health Trust or having the money returned to them, said Rowena Buffett Timms, senior vice president for government and community relations at Mission Health.

That foundation listed net assets of $25.8 million as of September 2016.

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