Do No Harm v. HCA Healthcare

On March 30, 2026, Do No Harm filed a formal complaint with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (HHS-OCR) alleging that HCA Healthcare—a for-profit healthcare system with hospitals in multiple states—discriminates on the basis of national origin, favoring foreign-trained physicians over American-trained doctors in its internal medicine residency program at Brandon Hospital in Florida.

Following graduation from medical school, residency programs are prestigious opportunities that are invaluable to the development of newly minted physicians. However, the internal medicine program at HCA Healthcare’s Brandon Hospital displays a near total exclusion of American-trained doctors.

Of the 58 total residents in the program, more than 70% received their medical education overseas. Moreover, in the most recent cohort, not a single resident went to medical school in the United States. The program is led by foreign-trained physicians educated in the small set of foreign countries from which the program fills its ranks.

Residency programs that selectively favor foreign doctors over American physicians on the basis of nationality or race are discriminatory. As a federal funding recipient, HCA Healthcare is subject to Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, which prohibit national origin and race discrimination.

Because highly imbalanced hiring patterns warrant further scrutiny, Do No Harm’s complaint requests that the agency investigate the matter and remedy any illegal discrimination.