Starting in August, NC Health News (the independent, non-partisan, not-for-profit, statewide news organization dedicated to covering health care in North Carolina) reached out to North Carolina’s statewide candidates and to all of North Carolina’s candidates for Congress asking them to answer a series of questions about health care issues: health care costs and transparency, opioids, mental health, abortion, pandemics and more. They were asked the same set of questions for candidates in individual races, tailoring the questions to the responsibilities of the jobs they were running to fill.  Visit the full guide here: https://www.northcarolinahealthnews.org/2024/10/14/health-care-voter-guide-2024-election/

MONDAY, JULY 1, 2024

RALEIGH

Millions of low- and middle- income North Carolinians are one step closer to medical debt relief. The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) approved on Friday, July 26 Governor Roy Cooper and the NC Department of Health and Human Services’ plan to use the state’s Medicaid program to incentivize hospitals to relieve more than a decade of existing medical debt for eligible North Carolinians and prevent accumulation of new debt going forward.

NCDHHS will now begin working with hospitals to implement the program, which has the potential to relieve a potential $4 billion in existing medical debt for people and families across the state.

“Unlike most other debts, medical debt is not intentional because people don’t choose to get seriously ill or have an accident,” said North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper. “Medical debts are often beyond people’s ability to pay, ruining their credit, keeping them from getting credit cards, loans and jobs and sometimes driving them into bankruptcy. That’s why we’re working with hospitals and federal partners to help relieve the burden of medical debt for North Carolina families.”

“Many people struggle with the burden of medical debt, which can cause them to hold off ...

Read full story at Asheville Citizen Times

by Michelle Crouch and Charlotte Ledger, North Carolina Health News
July 1, 2024

By Michelle Crouch

In an initiative that appears to be the first of its kind nationwide, N.C. Gov. Roy Cooper and state health officials unveiled a plan today to boost federal payouts to hospitals that take specific steps to ease the burden of medical debt for low-income patients. 

To participate, hospitals would have to agree to wipe out medical debt dating back to 2014 for large numbers of low- and middle-income patients. They would also have to abide by other conditions, such as offering discounts ranging from 50 percent to 100 percent to those patients, capping interest rates on hospital-held medical debt at 3 percent and agreeing not to report medical debt to credit agencies. 

With the program, the governor and the Department of Health and Human Services aim to address a burgeoning crisis of medical debt in North Carolina, where one out of five residents has medical debt in collections, according to 2022 credit bureau data analyzed by the policy think tank Urban Institute. Only three other states have higher numbers, the data shows. 

Medical debt disproportionately affects Black and Hispanic patients, as well as people living in rural areas. 

“Large ...

The rise of mega-hospitals

by Michelle Crouch and Charlotte Ledger, North Carolina Health News
April 22, 2024

By Michelle Crouch

When it comes to growth, it seems like hospitals can’t get enough of it.

Across the country, a tidal wave of hospital mergers and acquisitions in recent years has created multi-billion-dollar hospital giants that serve large swaths of the population. For example, just in North Carolina:

• Atrium Health’s massive combination with Advocate Aurora in 2022 formed the country’s third-largest public health care system. The system’s $28 billion footprint now stretches south to Georgia and across the country to Illinois and WIsconsin.
• HCA Healthcare’s controversial 2019 purchase of Mission Health in Asheville brought the nation’s largest for-profit hospital system into the state. With $65 billion in revenue and 186 hospitals in 20 states and the United Kingdom, HCA is a health care juggernaut.
• Novant Health is smaller, but it, too, is focused on expansion. In the past year, the Winston Salem-based system opened a new hospital in south Charlotte, purchased a medical center in Pender County and three coastal South Carolina hospitals, and inked a $320 million deal to acquire two Lake Norman-area hospitals.

In all, U.S. health ...

CHARLOTTE, N.C.- April 3, 2024–  Winners of the 3rd annual employer Culture of Wellbeing Award were announced by the North Carolina Business Coalition on Health (NCBCH) at the NCBCH Spring Forum in Greensboro.  The award recognizes the best employer wellbeing programs across the state; companies committed to improving the health and well-being of their employees.

Employer programs were rated across five components:
– Culture, Foundation, Policies
– Program Offerings / Tools / Incentives
– Strategic Planning / Communications
– Reporting Metrics & Evaluation
– Innovation

Two awards are presented based on employer size.  Volvo Group North America was declared the winner in the “Large Employer” category, and City of Rocky Mount in the “Small/Midsize Employer” category. 

“We are so excited that we were honored to be selected this year as the large employer winner of this award” said Angie Smallwood,  Manager of Health and Welfare Benefits Strategy at Volvo Group North America.  

Chrisie Tyson, Wellness Coordinator, accepted the award for City of Rocky Mount stating, ”it is with gratitude and great humility on behalf of the City of Rocky Mount we were chosen by the North Carolina Business Coalition on Health as a testament to our collective collaborations to bring well-being to our employees, companies, and ...

Conditions at Asheville’s Mission Hospital pose ‘immediate jeopardy to patients’ health and safety,’ state investigators report

by Asheville Watchdog, North Carolina Health News
January 23, 2024

By Andrew R. Jones

Asheville Watchdog

Mission Hospital risks losing Medicare and Medicaid funding because of deficiencies in care that were so severe, state inspectors concluded last month, that they “posed immediate jeopardy to patients’ health and safety,” Asheville Watchdog has learned.

“Immediate jeopardy” is the most serious deficiency possible for a hospital. The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services has recommended that Mission lose its participation in Medicare unless it quickly corrects the deficiencies, according to a letter obtained Thursday by The Watchdog. 

Failure to correct the deficiencies could threaten the financial viability of the hospital system. The majority of patients in Western North Carolina are on Medicare, Medicaid or uninsured.

The Dec. 19 letter from NCDHHS to Mission CEO Chad Patrick cites nine incidents over 19 months that highlighted deficiencies in care and states that “the hospital nursing staff failed to provide a safe environment for patients presenting to the emergency department (ED) by failing to accept patients on arrival, resulting in lack of or delays with triage, assessments, monitoring, and implementation of orders, including labs and telemetry.

“ED nursing ...

Charlotte hospitals say ‘no thanks’ to charity’s efforts to erase medical debt

by Charlotte Ledger, North Carolina Health News
December 11, 2023

By Michelle Crouch

Earlier this year, Trinity Moravian Church in Winston-Salem received national attention for doing something extraordinary: It erased nearly $3.3 million in medical debt for 3,355 local families living below the poverty line. 

The tiny church, with an average attendance of about 75 on Sundays, did it by raising $15,000 and partnering with RIP Medical Debt, a national nonprofit that buys unpaid medical debt and forgives it. 

RIP Medical Debt has wiped out billions of dollars in medical debt across the country in less than a decade. Recent campaigns in North Carolina have benefited residents in Davidson, Forsyth, Durham, Orange and Wake counties. 

But when retired Atrium Health physician Chris Lakin contacted RIP to see about launching a campaign to forgive debt for Charlotte residents, the charity said it wasn’t possible.

Why? Because RIP hasn’t been able to purchase enough qualifying medical debt in Mecklenburg County, RIP spokesman Daniel Lempert said.  

The problem is not a lack of medical debt in Charlotte. Rather, the issue is that Atrium Health and Novant Health — the area’s two big hospital systems — ...

Atrium Health halts lawsuits against patients for unpaid medical bills

by Charlotte Ledger, North Carolina Health News
October 16, 2023

By Michelle Crouch

Co-published with The Charlotte Ledger

Atrium Health, the state’s top collector of medical debt in recent years, has quietly stopped suing patients for unpaid medical bills.

The change was praised by critics who have long said it’s not right for a publicly chartered, multibillion-dollar, nonprofit hospital to take patients to court for medical costs that are often out of their control. 

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg NAACP has been advocating for Atrium to end the practice for at least a decade, said president Corine Mack. 

“When people are sick, the last thing they need to be concerned about is whether they are going to be sued for simply trying to get the help they need to stay alive,” Mack said. “Think of how hypocritical that is for a nonprofit to be suing people.”  

Mack said she was encouraged that Atrium was finally doing the right thing, but she noted that the change won’t help hundreds of patients who still have judgments against them and liens on their homes. 

Court records reviewed by The Charlotte Ledger/NC Health News show Atrium ...

National Alliance Hospital Fair Price Initiative
Setting the Record Straight: The Urgency of Achieving Hospital Fair Price

September 28, 2023, Charlotte, NC

Momentum from the work of employers and other healthcare purchasers, coalitions, and policy makers at both the state and federal levels to make healthcare more transparent and affordable is growing. Efforts to achieve fair prices and transparency to lower the cost of healthcare that holds down wages and stalls business growth have been challenged every step of the way by hospitals. 

As part of the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions’ Hospital Fair Price initiative, North Carolina Business Coalition on Health is working with fellow coalitions, our members, policymakers and other stakeholders to demand value and fairness in the biggest segment of the healthcare industry to ensure fair prices for their employees and families.

To support these efforts, the National Alliance has released a new resource, Setting the Record Straight: The Urgency of Achieving Hospital Fair Price, that identifies and debunks 10 of the top hospital industry inaccuracies around high, rapidly rising, and indefensible hospital prices.

Click here to access the report.