State Treasurer Brad Briner and the State Employees Association of North Carolina have joined forces to support a New Bern ophthalmologist’s attempt to overturn the state’s certificate of need law. In a Nov. 5 court filing, they argued that the law is a barrier to one of the treasurer’s strategies for blunting the medical-cost increases […]
Peace has broken out between State Treasurer Brad Briner’s office and CVS Caremark. On Tuesday, the treasurer’s office announced the successful conclusion to talks with the pharmacy benefits manager. They resulted in an agreement, officials said, that secures “hundreds of millions of dollars on behalf of the members of the State Health Plan.” Treasurer Brad Briner […]
There’s a bit more to say about Duke Health and its finances, given the heat State Treasurer Brad Briner’s office is putting on the hospital system over its ongoing contract negotiations with Aetna. As recounted here Monday, the worry stems from Aetna’s role as administrator of the State Health Plan. Basically, if Duke is too […]
Local Government Commission members have given State Treasurer Brad Briner the OK to withhold a portion of state-shared sales-tax money from 11 towns that are behind schedule in filing required financial audits. The decision — procedurally a denial of the towns’ appeals — affects: Morven, which is in Anson County. Kelford, in Bertie County. Siler […]
State Treasurer Brad Briner and many of his Republican colleagues around the country are once again at odds with BlackRock, the New York City-based investment manager. Back on July 29, Briner and 25 other GOP finance overseers in other states wrote BlackRock CEO Larry Fink to demand what they termed “a recommitment to the foundational […]
State Treasurer Brad Briner and his aides say the State Health Plan’s relationship with its pharmacy benefits manager, CVS Caremark, has “reached an untenable impasse.” Things have deteriorated to the point that the plan’s management is “evaluating its options to recover money owed and to determine its future relationship with Caremark,” they said in a Thursday […]
State Auditor Dave Boliek reports that the state treasurer’s office was managing $172.8 billion in cash and investments for the state at the end of 2024, just as Brad Briner was taking over from former Treasurer Dale Folwell. This is the fruit of a statutorily mandated check whenever the treasurer’s office changes hands, “to determine […]
State Treasurer Brad Briner’s office has launched a 12-week experiment with San Francisco-based OpenAI to figure out if the company’s tools can help improve the efficiency of some state-government operations. The project will focus on two specific jobs in the treasurer’s office: Matching unclaimed property with its owners and screening local-government financial filings for potential […]
State Treasurer Brad Briner’s said on numerous occasions that he thinks the state needs to move away from the “single fiduciary” model for managing its investments. Now, there are bills pending to operationalize this. House Bill 506 and Senate Bill 709 are substantively identical, and may even be literally so given that they both end […]
State Treasurer Brad Briner says his quarrel with Gov. Josh Stein over state pension funding is more a question of timing than about their ultimate aims. On the campaign trail last year and since taking office this year, Briner has said the treasurer’s office has to boost the pensions’ investment returns to ease their bite […]
State Treasurer Brad Briner and his aides are going to ask trustees of the State Health Plan today for permission to tie the plan’s insurance premiums to a member’s salary. The move is part of their nascent strategy for addressing the funding shortfalls that loom ahead for the plan, which are an expected $500 million […]
The name of the event changed, but new State Treasurer Brad Briner intends to continue his predecessor’s practice of holding a media conference call each month. Monday brought the first “DST Open Access” call — as opposed to former Treasurer Dale Folwell’s “Ask Me Anything” — and with it, Briner comments on several of the […]
State Treasurer Brad Briner named four new members to the state’s Investment Advisory Committee, which counsels the $123 billion retirement system. Three of the new appointees are from out of state. Robert Durden is CEO of the University of Virginia Investment Management Co. in Charlottesville; Michael Kennedy is a former senior client partner in Atlanta […]
State Treasurer Brad Briner appointed a John Hopkins University health-insurance expert to the board of the State Health Plan. The new appointee, Dr. Brian Miller, replaces Winston-Salem internal medicine Dr. Pete Robie as one of the treasurer’s two appointees to the board that oversees the insurance program for state-paid employees, teachers and retirees. Miller’s appointment […]
