To the Editor:

The Mission Health board and CEO Ron Paulus clearly don’t get it: the system’s billions in assets do not belong to them to do with as they please.

A few days ago, Mission announced the incorporation of a nonprofit foundation to receive the proceeds from the proposed sale of Mission’s six hospitals to HCA Healthcare, the nation’s largest for-profit chain. By law, proceeds from the sale must go to another nonprofit dedicated to improving regional health – but that doesn’t mean Mission gets to shape that nonprofit or decide who runs it.

Nevertheless, Mission’s board not only named the foundation, it picked one of its own former members, the woman Paulus credits with bringing him to North Carolina eight years ago, to head the new board. The message couldn’t be clearer: Mission and Paulus believe it’s their right to control the money generated by the sale to HCA. 

That assumption is as arrogant as it is wrong. Why? Because a foundation created to serve the community should be formed by people drawn from throughout the community — not a self-selecting few who give lip service to inclusiveness while rushing to perpetuate their own power. 

That’s why at least nine states spell out community-focused mechanisms for creating such foundations. That’s why many of those laws prohibit or severely limit any involvement by the nonprofit hospital’s leaders in the foundation that’s formed.

Fortunately, Paulus and Mission don’t get the last word. That belongs to state Attorney General Josh Stein. His role is to protect the taxpayers of North Carolina, who have, by allowing Mission to avoid paying taxes all these years, invested many millions in the system. 

SEARCH (Sustaining Essential and Rural Community Healthcare) calls on Stein to put the brakes on Mission’s assumption of a right that does not and should not belong to it. Anything less would shortchange the public whose trust he holds.

Victoria Loe Hicks

Bakersville