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Health Care

WakeMed makes its case

WakeMed officials say cost-cutting pressure from the federal and state governments and competition from UNC Health and Duke Health mean they have no choice but to find what they’re calling a “strategic partner.” “The reality as we look five, 10 and 25 years ahead, we know WakeMed cannot continue to...

By Ray Gronberg

May 11, 2026

Wake delays WakeMed/Atrium merger vote

Wake County Commissioners have agreed to delay consideration of a contract change that would clear the way for the proposed WakeMed/Atrium Health merger. The delay will last for at least 90 days, commissioners say. It will “provide time for the hospitals to engage with the community,” answer questions and make...

By Ray Gronberg

May 11, 2026

Burgin proposes clampdown on hospital mergers

Sen. Jim Burgin, the Harnett County Republican who co-chairs the Senate’s Health committee, got wind of the prospective Atrium Health/WakeMed merger about three weeks ago but got stonewalled when he asked Atrium officials about it. Burgin says his “contact at Atrium” wouldn’t answer when he said he’d heard a rumor...

By Ray Gronberg

May 11, 2026

Atrium/ Wake Med merger update

If history is any guide, the impending merger of WakeMed with Charlotte-based Atrium Health “will not benefit the public,” State Treasurer Brad Briner says. “There is a simple business principle that when suppliers consolidate and competition is reduced it is the consumers who suffer,” he said after the two hospital systems announced their deal. “This...

By Ray Gronberg

May 11, 2026

Blue Cross NC posts $497.3M loss for 2025

Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina posted a $497.3 million loss in calendar 2025, a report to the N.C. Department of Insurance says. The loss comes after BCBSNC netted $68.5 million in calendar 2024. “Like insurers nationwide, [BCBSNC] faced significant cost pressures in 2025 as health care costs continued...

By Ray Gronberg

May 1, 2026

Batch backtracks on Medicaid rebase

Senate Democratic Leader Sydney Batch, D-Wake, has walked back her caucus’s support of the Medicaid rebase bill that it has already voted in favor of passing. She put out a letter on Friday asking the Senate’s Republican leaders to pull back the bill and rewrite it to drop three of...

By Ray Gronberg

April 27, 2026

House panel shelves hospital-taxation proposals

The House’s property tax committee wrapped up its pre-session work on Wednesday without offering any endorsement of the idea of reeling in some of the tax breaks the state gives hospitals. Members endorsed the idea of putting a constitutional amendment on the fall ballot that, if voter-approved, would require the...

By Ray Gronberg

April 22, 2026

First State Health Plan claims-processing RFP comes a cropper

State Treasurer Brad Briner’s staff needs to send out a new RFP for a State Health Plan claims processor because the first one didn’t draw any responses that met their minimum requirements. The new RFP will go out “in the coming weeks” and the goal remains to have options for...

By Ray Gronberg

April 22, 2026

UNC Wilmington pushing for new med school

Officials at UNC Wilmington want the university to set up its own standalone medical school, and have a plan they say can enroll the first 60 would-be doctors for the 2029-30 academic year. Chancellor Aswani Volety briefed members of the UNC System Board of Governors about the idea on Wednesday....

By Ray Gronberg

April 22, 2026

Plymouth hospital endorses nurse-practice bills

A coastal hospital has joined the groups advocating for a relaxation of the state’s restrictions on advanced-practice nurses. Washington Regional Medical Center has joined a coalition that favors passage of either Senate Bill 537 or House Bill 514. Either would give advanced-practice nurses more latitude to practice outside a physician’s...

By Ray Gronberg

April 15, 2026

Legislators urged to tighten autism-care networks

North Carolina’s four managed care organizations say state legislators have to change the law if they want to get a handle on the exploding Medicaid costs associated with a leading type of autism care. Specifically, they’re urging legislators to allow them to return to a “closed network” that allows them...

By Ray Gronberg

April 9, 2026

FirstHealth sees losses ahead early in 2030s

Executives from Pinehurst-based FirstHealth say the federal government’s One Big Beautiful Bill has put the hospital system on a course that could lead to operating losses by fiscal 2031-32. “We can’t let that happen, we’re not going to let that happen,” FirstHealth CFO Autumn McFann told the members of a...

By Ray Gronberg

April 9, 2026

UNC ups nurse production; legislators unsatisfied

The UNC System says its universities are on track to produce 707 more nurses a year by the 2029-30 school year. Trouble is, that doesn’t fill the 12,459-nurse gap in supply versus demand that UNC Chapel Hill’s Sheps Center for Health Services Research sees coming by 2033. Members of a...

By Ray Gronberg

April 9, 2026

Affordability “covering the gamut,” pollsters say

North Carolinians aren’t happy about the cost of healthcare, with 17%  telling pollsters that they’ve skipped needed care because they can’t afford it. But the consultants who orchestrated the poll, Paul Shumaker and Morgan Jackson, say that’s in line with broader concerns about the affordability of, well, almost everything. “If...

By Ray Gronberg

March 30, 2026

Zaas returning to Duke Health to become its CEO

Dr. David Zaas takes over as CEO of Duke Health on May 1, putting him in charge of an $11 billion enterprise and one of the state’s largest employers. The move comes less than three months after Zaas became CEO of Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist in Winston-Salem. He had...

By Ray Gronberg

March 26, 2026

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