Pinnacle Health Servs. of N.C. LLC v. N.C. Dep't of Health & Hum. Servs.

Summary

The Court held that judicial review in this certificate-of-need proceeding focuses on the administrative law judge’s final decision, not the Agency’s initial award decision. It affirmed the ruling that appellants failed to preserve specific challenges to the ALJ’s comparative-analysis findings, but reversed the Court of Appeals’ conclusion that appellants failed to challenge the substantial-prejudice findings; the Court nevertheless held that Pinnacle established substantial prejudice as the denied eligible applicant. The Court therefore affirmed the CON award to Pinnacle while affirming in part and reversing in part the Court of Appeals’ reasoning.