ASHEVILLE – Mission Health saysit has signed a definitive agreement tobe bought by HCA Healthcare forabout $1.5 billion.

Mission and HCA announced inMarch they had entered into negotia-tions for a sale. Mission announcedFriday morning that the two sides hadagreed on a price and other terms.

The sale is subject to review by thestate Department of Justice. Therewas no immediate word on when thesale would become effective, which isdependent in part on how long that re-view takes.

Proceeds from the sale will go toDogwood Health Trust, a foundationcreated earlier this year for that pur-pose. It will use earnings from invest-ing sale proceeds, plus any remainingcash and investments owned by Mis-sion after the health system’s debts aresatisfied, to fund programs intendedto improve the health of WesternNorth Carolina residents.

An announcement from Missionsays HCA has agreed to continue to op-erate key clinical services for at leastfive years and keep all of Mission’sacute-care and rehabilitation hospi-tals open for 10 years. That does not in-clude St. Joseph’s Hospital in Ashe-ville, which Mission had alreadyplanned to vacate.

Friday’s announcement says HCAhas committed to $430 million overfive years in capital expenditures. Thatincludes completion of the MissionHospital for Advanced Medicine nowunder construction on the main Mis-sion campus, building a replacementhospital for Angel Medical Center inFranklin and building a new behavior-al health hospital.

HCA and Mission will contribute$25 million each to create a $50 million“innovation fund” that Mission’s an-nouncement said will “invest in busi-nesses providing innovations in health

Mission agrees to$1.5B sale to HCA

Proceeds will go toDogwood Health Trust

Mark Barrett Asheville Citizen TimesUSA TODAY NETWORK

The sale of Mission Health to HCA Healthcare is subject to review by the state Department of Justice. CITIZEN TIMES FILE PHOTO

See MISSION, Page 7A

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 2018 ❚ CITIZEN-TIMES.COM PART OF THE USA TODAY NETWORK

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ASHEVILLE – With the singlestroke of a knife, Seth Willis Pickering,38, took the life of his 6-year-olddaughter, Lila, two years ago. A federaljudge ruled Friday that the Leicesterman will spend the rest of his life inprison as a result.

Pickering in early February pleaded

guilty to murdering his daughter . It wasmade clear then that he would receive alife term for the crime, but it wasn’t untilFriday that U.S. District Court JudgeMax. Cogburn Jr. officially sentencedPickering, as Lila’s mother, grandmoth-er and aunt watched.

The sentencing, which lasted aboutan hour, touched on grand societalproblems and failings. Pickering and hisattorneys argued that inadequacies of

mental health treatment providers wereamong the factors ultimately led to Li-la’s murder.

A woman who spoke on behalf ofPickering’s ex-wife, Ashley — who leftthe courtroom while Pickering wasspeaking — said that the country’s bro-ken family court system bore a portionof the blame.

Man who murdered daughter gets life Sam DeGrave Asheville Citizen TimesUSA TODAY NETWORK

See PICKERING, Page 7A

ASHEVILLE – The Food and DrugAdministration this week warned con-sumers and pet owners not to useproducts made by King Bio and labeledas “Dr. King’s.”

The Asheville-based manufacturerof homeopathic products has againvoluntarily recalled all water-basedproducts marketed for humans andanimals.

High levels of microbial contamina-tion have been identified at the manu-facturing site, according to the FDA.

Dr. King’s Farms products, whichinclude the Leicester-based CarolinaBison and DK Meats brands, are not af-fected by the recall.

“We take product quality issues se-riously, and when we see substandardconditions during the course of our in-spections — in this case conditions

King Bio recalls some productsMackensy Lunsford Asheville Citizen TimesUSA TODAY NETWORK

President of Bio King, Dr. Frank King, performs muscle testing on his wife SuzieKing as a diagnostic technique in their Asheville facility. DILLON DEATON/CITIZEN TIMES See RECALL, Page 6A

“Mission Health has an

impressive, more than

130-year tradition of caring

for communities throughout

western North Carolina and

we are delighted to have

finalized our agreements so

that we can help continue

their legacy.” Milton Johnson HCA Healthcare’s chairman and CEO

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care delivery that benefitthe people of westernNorth Carolina.”

Mission is a nonprofitthat has operated in WNCfor more than 130 years.HCA is a for-profit com-pany based in Nashville,Tennessee, that operateshospitals across the Unit-ed States.

Friday’s announce-ment says MissionHealth will continue to bemanaged locally. Nearlyall Mission Health facili-ties and clinics will be-come part of HCA Health-care while continuing tooperate under the Mis-sion brand, Mission said.

Mission operates hos-pitals in Asheville, Bre-vard, Franklin, High-lands, Marion and SprucePine plus numerous phy-sician practices, a homehealth care agency andother health care facili-ties. It employs 12,000people.

Mission facedlong-term financialpressures

Mission officials havesaid they began lookingat a sale because of long-term financial pressurecreated by the high pro-portion of its patientswhose care is covered byMedicare or Medicaid,government programsthat Mission says do notpay the full cost of care.

The system also en-gaged in a high-profilebattle last year with thestate’s dominant healthinsurance company, BlueCross Blue Shield ofNorth Carolina, over con-tract terms. The two sideswere able to come to anagreement after a periodin which Mission was“out of network” for hold-ers of Blue Cross insur-ance.

Mission’s financialstatement for the fiscalyear ended Septembersaid it was still profitable,but health system offi-cials said they faced theprospect of cuts in ser-vices in the years aheadin order to stay in theblack. They say HCA willbe able to operate backoffice services like billingand purchasing more effi-ciently.

“From the very begin-ning, Mission Health’sboard worked diligentlyand continually to ensurethat the very best pathwas selected for the peo-ple of western North Car-olina and to make certainthat our community hasaccess to high quality, ef-fective and compassion-ate care for generations tocome,” said MissionHealth Board Chair Dr.John Ball.

“After completing duediligence and finalizingdefinitive agreementsthat have significant pro-tections for our ruralcommunities, we are con-vinced that HCA Health-care is the right and best

choice for western NorthCarolina and Mission’steam members, providersand patients. It is heart-ening to share that everysingle Mission Healthmember entity Board vot-ed unanimously to ap-prove this transaction,”Ball said.

“Mission Health hasan impressive, more than130-year tradition of car-ing for communitiesthroughout westernNorth Carolina and we

are delighted to have fi-nalized our agreementsso that we can help con-tinue their legacy,” saidMilton Johnson, HCAHealthcare’s chairmanand CEO.

“As a healthcare pro-vider founded by physi-cians 50 years ago our-selves, we share MissionHealth’s focus on excel-lence and we look for-ward to investing in west-ern North Carolina to im-prove the health of the re-

gion,” Johnson said.State law says the De-

partment of Justice cantake up to 60 days to re-view a proposed salesuch as Mission’s after ithas received all of the in-formation it needs.

If the department ob-jects to the sale, it wouldhave to file a lawsuit toblock it and a judge or ju-ry would decide whetherthe sale would gothrough.

The announcement by

Mission and HCA inMarch that they hadsigned a letter of intent tonegotiate a sale hasdrawn a mixed reaction inthe months since.

Some have said themove appears to be nec-essary to ensure Mis-sion’s viability over thelong term and that Dog-wood Health Trust couldmake a significant contri-bution to efforts to attacksocial problems that con-tribute to health issues in

the region.Others have worried

about the effects on thequality of care and avail-ability of services of asale to a for-profit com-pany, with those servedby Mission’s rural hospi-tals particularly con-cerned about their long-term future under HCA.

Return to CITIZEN-TIMES.com for more onthis breaking story.

MissionContinued from Page 1A

But before Cogburn handed down Pickering’s sen-tence he made clear how he felt about what had tran-spired, all contributing factors aside.

Pickering had “weaponized” his daughter to lashout in “a selfish act of anger” at his wife for having lefthim and at social services for having placed Lila in thecare of a temporary guardian a month prior, Cogburnsaid.

“Mr. Pickering said he felt his life was over, but hedidn’t take his life. He took her life,” Cogburn saidshortly before he told Pickering that, barring somehighly unlikely change in the law, he would spend hisremaining days behind bars.

Leading up to Lila’s death

About a month before Pickering killed his daughter,

the Buncombe County Department of Health and Hu-man Services took Lila from her father and placed herunder the custody of caretakers who lived near John-ston Elementary, where Lila went to school, accordingto the federal complaint against Pickering.

The complaint doesn’t say why DHHS took Lilafrom her father, but Ashley Pickering told the CitizenTimes in 2016 that it was because he had hit anotherwoman.

On Sept. 9, Seth Pickering picked his daughter upfrom her caretakers’ home and, against their warn-ings, took her camping along the Blue Ridge Parkwaynear Brevard Road. Lila’s guardians notified the Bun-

combe County Sheriff’s Office, which was preparing toissue an Amber Alert at the time of Lila’s death.

Just before 7 p.m. two park rangers approachedPickering and his daughter, investigating what theybelieved to be an illegal campsite.They knew nothingabout the Amber Alert, as it was never issued. Thingswent terribly awry after the rangers greeted Pickeringand his daughter.

“Without warning, (one ranger) observed Pickeringturn away from the rangers and make a lunging move-ment toward Lila who was standing a few feet behindhim,” according to the federal complaint. “(The ranger)heard an audible “thud-like” noise and a brief high-pitched wince or grunt sound coming from Lila, whothen fell to the ground.”

She had been stabbed through the heart and died atthe scene.

Pickering later told the rangers that he had killed hisdaughter so that nobody could take her from himagain, according to the complaint. “Now they will nev-er be able to take her away from me,” he said.

PickeringContinued from Page 1A

“Mr. Pickering said he felt his life was

over, but he didn’t take his life. He

took her (Lila’s) life. ”U.S. District Court Judge Max. Cogburn Jr.