$50B Rural Health Transformation Program needs more transparency, groups say
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As Atrium pursues WakeMed, a look inside its last big North Carolina deal
By Michelle Crouch Key Takeaways: As Atrium Health continues its push to join forces with Raleigh-based WakeMed Health & Hospitals, its leaders have repeatedly pointed to another North Carolina deal as evidence of what to expect: its 2020 combination with Winston-Salem-based Wake Forest Baptist. “Don’t judge us by what we say; judge us by what…
What is Medetomidine? The latest threat in the street drug supply
By Taylor Knopf Key Takeaways: North Carolina’s supply of illicit street drugs is in a constant state of change. People are no longer buying just heroin, fentanyl or opioid pills anymore, as most samples of these illegal drugs have more than one substance in them. People often don’t know what is in their drugs because…
Same knee surgery, twice the price: Hospital monopolies push up healthcare costs
By Peter Whoriskey KFF Health News More than a million times a year, a U.S. surgeon slices open a knee, strips out worn cartilage, caps the leg bones with metal, and drops in a plastic spacer to allow the new joint to glide. While knee replacement procedures have become standard, however, the prices charged have…
SNAP changes push more North Carolina families to food pantries, food banks
By Jennifer Fernandez Key takeaways: In 2015, a group of concerned Guilford County residents decided to collect food from their neighborhood to help families in need. That first year, 180 families signed up to give food. Today, more than 4,500 people donate once or twice a month to the nonprofit A Simple Gesture. The nonprofit,…
Trump has quietly throttled an agency devoted to the safety of American healthcare
By Arthur Allen KFF Health News The Trump administration has effectively shut down most of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s activities, closing the spigot on federal funding estimated to have saved thousands of lives and billions of dollars over the past 27 years by improving medical practice. In a July 15 letter, the…
As political giving mounted, lawmakers backed mental health center
By Michelle Crouch Co-published with The Charlotte Ledger In 2020, Charlotte businessman Michael Estramonte set out to build a nonprofit treatment center to create more space for kids in mental health crisis. The idea quickly won support from state and local lawmakers. Since 2023, the Katie Blessing Center has secured more than $40 million in…