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Health Care

Blue Cross regains State Health Plan contract

Three years after losing it, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina has won back the State Health Plan’s business, and then some. Plan trustees on Friday voted to hire Blue Cross to serve as its third-party claims processor, a job the Durham-based insurer had performed until it fell...

By Ray Gronberg

July 13, 2026

UNC Health, Novant make state’s “preferred provider” list

State Health Plan managers say making UNC Health and Novant two of the plan’s three preferred care providers will have its greatest fallout in the Charlotte area, given that Atrium Health is winding up on the “non-preferred” list. The decision means plan members will face less in co-pays if they...

By Ray Gronberg

July 13, 2026

Health researchers criticize WakeMed/Atrium deal

Brown University analysts have joined State Treasurer Brad Briner and the rest of the chorus that contends the proposed WakeMed/Atrium Health merger will only wind up increasing healthcare costs. This is because mergers like this one give hospitals more leverage to use against insurers, says Dan Arnold and other researchers...

By Ray Gronberg

July 8, 2026

Group urges Wake commish to put strings on WakeMed/Atrium deal

A Washington-based advocacy group is urging Wake County Commissioners to asked more questions and attach some strings to the proposed WakeMed-Atrium Health merger. The strings should include written commitments that WakeMed will preserve essential services, expand mental-health programs, and maintain its charity care community benefit standards, says the group United...

By Ray Gronberg

June 29, 2026

Senators worry about AI-driven hospital billing

Senators have rewritten a House bill to ban insurance companies from using AI as “the sole basis” for denying the pre-approval of healthcare claims. The revised House Bill 565 also includes a section that forbids hospital and AI developers from using the technology to “upcode” billings for care. By that,...

By Ray Gronberg

June 29, 2026

UNC Health requests target Wilmington, Asheville

UNC Health officials say they’ve applied to state Department of Health and Human Services for certificates of need that would allow them to build new hospitals in Wilmington and Asheville. The Wilmington application proposes a 150-bed hospital on 62 acres at the corner of South 17th Street and Shipyard Boulevard....

By Ray Gronberg

June 22, 2026

Burgin healthcare bill mired in Senate

Sen. Jim Burgin’s healthcare reform bill cleared another hurdle on Tuesday, but it’s unclear whether it’ll eventually got to the Senate floor for a vote by the chamber’s 50 members. Senate Bill 978 got a favorable vote Tuesday morning from the Senate Judiciary committee. Its next stop is the Appropriations/Base...

By Ray Gronberg

June 19, 2026

CON battles in Winston-Salem and Wilmington

North Carolina hospital chains Atrium Health and Cone Health say they’ve filed certificate-of-need applications with the state for major projects would expand their geographic scope. Cone proposes to open a $330 million, 56-bed hospital in southeast Forsyth County, entering a Winston-Salem market now dominated by Atrium and Novant County. Its...

By Ray Gronberg

June 19, 2026

Social-media regs wait in the wings

Legislators are close to getting a bill to regulate teens’ access to “addictive social media platforms” and applications across the finish line. The Senate on June 10 passed and returned to the House the latest version of House Bill 301. It restricts the ability of children under the age of...

By Ray Gronberg

June 19, 2026

WakeMed, Atrium address county leaders’ questions

Atrium Health and WakeMed officials discussed their proposed combination with Wake County Commissioners Monday after producing a 61-page document providing more explanation of the deal. The two hospital systems held a secret meeting with the commission in mid-March, but didn’t disclose their plans until Friday, May 4, when it was...

By Ray Gronberg

June 9, 2026

UNC Health takeover of psychiatric hospitals?

The House’s involuntary-commitment reform bill includes provisions that ask UNC Health to consider taking over the operations of North Carolina’s three state-owned psychiatric hospitals. House Bill 1104 wants an answer from UNC Health by December. It also gives the system the option of taking over only “certain operations,” or of...

By Ray Gronberg

June 5, 2026

Community Colleges struggles to fill nursing posts

North Carolina has a nursing shortage, but the N.C. Community Colleges has its own problems when it comes to hiring instructors in the field to train people who could close the gap. State Auditor Dave Boliek’s recent report on the 136 long-term vacancies in the Community Colleges system found that...

By Ray Gronberg

June 5, 2026

Hall on WakeMed/Atrium merger

House Speaker Destin Hall isn’t inclined to join the parade of elected officials criticizing the proposed WakeMed/Atrium hospital-system merger. “Both of them certainly know what they’re doing, and I imagine they’ll get it figured out, one way or the other, and I hope they do that without us having to...

By Ray Gronberg

May 12, 2026

Berger: Answers needed on WakeMed cost impact

WakeMed and Atrium Health need to come to the table “prepared to answer” concerns about whether their proposed merger will fuel or moderate healthcare cost increases, Senate leader Phil Berger says. But Berger signaled on Tuesday that while the deal bears “some digging into,” he’s inclined to let the Wake...

By Ray Gronberg

May 11, 2026

House Dems agreed with Burgin on merger oversight

House Democrats have lined up behind a merger-oversight bill for hospitals that’s substantively identical to the one Sen. Jim Burgin, R-Harnett, introduced on April 30. “We want a process to be followed,” Rep. Sarah Crawford, D-Wake, said Monday during a caucus news conference on a quartet of healthcare bills. “We...

By Ray Gronberg

May 11, 2026

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