HCA Healthcare Can’t Shake Joint Employer Claim in Bias Suit

HCA Healthcare Inc. must face an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission lawsuit after a federal judge ruled that the agency sufficiently alleged the health care company could be an integrated enterprise with another defendant.

EEOC alleged that HCA passed over a qualified, older, Asian-American employee to hire a younger, underqualified, White one, and ultimately terminated him when he complained. Seeking dismissal from the case, the health care company argued in the US District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee that it was a distinct legal entity from Tennessee Healthcare Management, which it said was the actual former employer.

But the ...