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There are some workplace conversations Justin Pruett will never forget. He’s counseled OB-GYNs after newborns have died in their care and sat across the table from parents of children paralyzed in automobile accidents. Pruett is the director of claims at HCA Healthcare, one of the largest for-profit healthcare systems in the United States. Despite the fact that Pruett, a lawyer by trade, is charged with managing claims and risk for over seventy medical facilities, he’s not focused solely on HCA’s financial interests; he’s committed to doing right by both provider and patient.
Those who best know Pruett use one word to describe him: determined. The Nashville, Tennessee native confesses to driving his mother crazy as a talkative and energetic child. By age thirteen, he wasn’t sure if he had the gift of gab or if he just couldn’t shut up. Pruett later signed up for his high school’s mock trial team to find out. It didn’t take long for his teachers and coaches to affirm his talent. Soon, he was taking advantage of every opportunity to hone skills related to writing, public speaking, and the power of persuasion.
After Pruett walked across the stage to receive his diploma, Nashville started to feel like a suffocating small town. He headed northeast and crossed into Virginia to attend a small liberal arts college known as Bridgewater, where he became the youngest student body vice president during his sophomore year. It was quite the accomplishment for a gay Black man from the south who would soon become the first in his family to finish a four-year degree.
Although he faced obstacles along the way, Pruett benefitted from a strong support network. “I knew what I wanted to do and how to get there. I just needed open doors,” he explains. Those who recognized Pruett’s passion pushed him forward.
“I’m driven by service for others and being involved in the communities that I grew up in or identify with. It’s all about lifting people up.”
Justin Pruett
Still, an advanced degree seemed out of reach for a young man of modest means. Pruett applied to law school with recommendations and referrals from Bridgewater’s professors, deans, and board members. Months later, an award letter came in the mail. Pruett had been offered a scholarship to Roger Williams University School of Law. He turned it down.
Why? The ambitious twenty-one-year-old needed some time to catch his breath. He put law school on pause (RWU agreed to hold his scholarship), tested the legal waters as a paralegal, and got into insurance adjusting. When he resumed his academic career, Pruett became a student bar association president and a moot court national champion.
Years as a law clerk, settlement negotiator, and litigation specialist prepared Pruett to join HCA as a senior claims supervisor in 2020. Eleven days after his arrival, COVID-19 forced him to learn his job and HCA’s culture remotely.
Pruett says the pandemic also changed the public’s perception of healthcare workers. “It seems like many frontline care providers went from heroes to something else overnight,” he says. “I push the real narrative: we are here to serve and treat and care for people in need.”
That belief guides all Pruett does to administer the hundreds of high-value medical malpractice claims that come across his desk. As a leader in HCA’s captive risk and insurance department, he manages four colleagues to assist HCA facilities and employees when they are sued or have claims filed against them. He also guides defense counsel and decides whether HCA will pursue litigation or agree to a settlement.
Pruett and many of his family members were born in HCA hospitals. Perhaps that fact is part of what motivates him to find reasonable solutions that work for all parties. “We as an organization are committed to the care and improvement of human life,” he says. “I’m driven by service for others and being involved in the communities that I grew up in or identify with. It’s all about lifting people up.”
Aaron Ryan, a partner at Hall, Prangle and Schoonveld shares, “Justin is a genuine person and a rising star. Professionally, he manages claims with insight and intelligence. Personally, he is involved with his alma mater and within the community. I have wondered how he finds the time, but he does.”
HCA now has facilities in twenty US states and in the UK. Together, its providers deliver care to more than 43 million patients each year, and its first quarter revenue in 2024 topped $17 billion. HCA is thriving, and Pruett is content to grow along with the organization. He hopes to run his own department, and then, perhaps, an entire insurance company.
“I push the real narrative: we are here to serve and treat and care for people in need.”
Justin Pruett
For now, Pruett is focused on giving back. “I try to model myself after the people who helped me, so it’s important for me to engage and stay active in my community,” he says. The veteran lawyer and claims professional is a member of the Bridgewater College Board of Trustees. He also serves on the Board of Nashville Launch Pad, the only LGBTQ-affirming shelter for young adults in the region.
Pruett enjoys talking to young people about topics like financial literacy and his own experience coming out. The latter took him three tries. “Coming out wasn’t easy, but being my most authentic version is the best gift I could have given myself,” he says. “It took a lot to get here, but this is who I am, and nobody will tell me any different.”
