Tag: Eastern Band of the Cherokee

By Neil Cotiaux Carolina Public Press When HCA Healthcare purchased nonprofit Mission Health, the rules of charitable giving in communities across Western North Carolina changed. With a for-profit owner running medical facilities, the foundations that raised funds from donors to support the local hospitals that had become part of Mission Health over time could no

By Katja Ridderbusch Kaiser Health News Light pours through large windows and glass ceilings of the Cherokee Indian Hospital onto a fireplace, a waterfall and murals. Rattlesnake Mountain, which the Cherokee elders say holds ancient healing powers, is visible from most angles. The hospital’s motto — “Ni hi tsa tse li” or “It belongs to

By Sarah Ovaska-Few Four weeks into the federal government shutdown, Rochelle Poe is distraught, unable to pay the January rent for her Raleigh townhome and facing possible eviction. Poe, a 20-year employee and mortgage underwriter for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, says the threat of eviction over her $1,092 overdue rent has made it difficult

By Sarah Ovaska-Few North Carolina’s Medicaid overhaul cleared a major hurdle this week with the federal government giving an official nod to plans to switch to a managed-care system. Approval by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in what’s known as a Section 1115 Demonstration Waiver means the N.C. Department of Health and

By Mark Tosczak If all goes as planned, a newly formed foundation, the Dogwood Health Trust, will receive the proceeds of Mission Health’s sale to for-profit hospital operator HCA sometime later this year or in early 2019. That money, as much as $2 billion, will be used to fund $50 million to $100 million in

The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians are using research and new partnerships to expand access to wild foods at the heart of their culture. This week, NC Health News brings you some of best stories of 2016. Enjoy! By Catherine Clabby On an Appalachian Mountains slope coated with trees and low plants, Tommy Cabe got

By Thomas Goldsmith Stephanie Chase has worked for Robeson County’s Nurse-Family Partnership long enough to see a group of mothers and babies “graduate.” Chase, a nurse from Lumberton, has worked for two-and-a-half years as part of a network of registered nurses in Robeson and Columbus counties, part of the national Nurse-Family Partnership effort. Nurses in

By Catherine Clabby On an Appalachian Mountains slope coated with trees and low plants, Tommy Cabe got on his knees to look for shiny black seeds inside a late-season ramp patch. “Here there are five seedpods but no seeds,” the forest resource specialist for the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians pronounced, adding quickly, “Here’s one!”

By Taylor Sisk On Oct. 15, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians snipped the ribbon on their $82 million hospital. Next Monday, the hospital is scheduled to open its doors. The new 155-000-square-foot Cherokee Indian Hospital is the latest product of an ongoing initiative to enhance health care services on the tribe’s Qualla Boundary, a

By Taylor Sisk Jerry Wolfe has spent the vast majority of his 91 years within shouting distance of Rattlesnake Mountain. The mountain keeps watch over the Cherokee village, hub of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians’ Qualla Boundary home, tucked into the Great Smoky Mountains of Western North Carolina. Wolfe, a WW II veteran,