

Department of Health and Human Services opened an investigation into the project in 2020. The partnership drew criticism over privacy concerns and the potential for violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, and the U.S. Known as Project Nightingale, the stated purpose of the collaboration was to make it easier for physicians to access and search their patient records. The Wall Street Journal reported on a collaboration between Ascension and Google in 2019 to share health information about its patients with the technology company. Each system will retain the hospitals they originally contributed to the partnership. In October 2021, Ascension and AdventHealth announced the planned dissolution of their joint venture AMITA in 2022. Denman contended that she had been cheated out of the due process, as provided in the company substance-abuse policy, depriving her of a chance to establish her innocence, and retain her position. The lawsuit arose from a December 2017 incident, in which Denman was accused of smelling like alcohol while on duty. Vincent Medical Group for defamation and fraud. In February, 2020, a jury awarded obstetrician/ gynecologist Rebecca Denman, MD, $4.75 million in damages by an Indiana jury, after suing Ascension's St. city council specifically passed an ordinance to give the city the power to block the closing, the suit was ultimately withdrawn by the Attorney General after reviewing plans for the hospital's closure. In December 2018, the Attorney General of the District of Columbia brought suit against Ascension in an attempt to prevent the closure of the Providence Health System hospital, which served a low-income population but was financially unviable. In January, 2018, the parties announced a settlement, in which Ascension would pay $29.5 million to the plaintiffs. In April 2016, a class-action lawsuit was brought in federal court, alleging that Ascension subsidiary Wheaton Franciscan Services (in Glendale, Wisconsin), erred by treating its pension plan as though it was a "church plan," exempt from the Employee Retirement Income Security Act ("ERISA"), a federal law governing employee pensions. In 2014, the company partnered in opening the $2 billion Health City Cayman Islands project, and sold its stake in 2017. Joseph Health System merged to create Ascension Health, which was later renamed to Ascension over the years, various other hospitals and clinics joined the system. In 1999, the Daughters of Charity National Health System and Sisters of St. In addition to health and senior care facilities, Ascension also operates a for-profit venture capital subsidiary called Ascension Ventures, which invests in medical startups. The company is led by president and CEO Joseph R. Ascension had an operating revenue of $27.2 billion at the end of fiscal year 2021. It employs more than 142,000 people as of 2021. It operates more than 2,600 health care sites in 19 states and Washington, D.C., including 142 hospitals and 40 senior living facilities. Ascension is one of the largest nonprofit and Catholic health systems in the United States as of 2021.
