Tag: Mandy Cohen

By Sarah Ovaska  While a move to switch Medicaid to a managed care system in North Carolina is on indefinite hold, several companies rejected by state health officials for lucrative managed care contracts are still vying for seats at the table. If N.C. Administrative Law Judge Tenisha Jacobs agrees with lawyers in her Raleigh courtroom

By NC Health News Staff Lessons from Abroad: How Europeans tackled opioid addiction and what the U.S. could learn from them. For years, NC Health News has reported on the drug-related deaths, diseases and losses that have resulted from the opioid crisis. Life expectancy in the United States has dropped for two years in a

By Sarah Ovaska-Few No one said it would be easy to move 1.6 million Medicaid recipients away from the existing fee-for-service system that’s been in place for decades, to a new system with a different management and payment model. And that message – it’s not easy — is what state lawmakers heard Wednesday as top

By Liora Engel-Smith Health officials showered accolades on the state health department’s newest psychiatric facility at an outdoor ribbon-cutting ceremony in Morganton on Wednesday. Officials touted the new Broughton Hospital’s roughly 477,000 square-feet structure’s sunny hallways, onsite pharmacy and dental clinic and bathrooms that offer patients a modicum of privacy. The red-brick structure’s debut came

By Rose Hoban North Carolina’s Department of Health and Human Services has asked Baby+Co. if they can perform an investigation of the organization’s Cary-based facility where three newborns have died in the past six months. HHS Sec. Mandy Cohen told a legislative oversight committee Tuesday any such review of the facility would be strictly voluntary

By Taylor Knopf Over the next month, community service organizations across North Carolina can apply for state-funded grants up to $150,000 to fight the opioid epidemic in their areas. Department of Health and Human Services Sec. Mandy Cohen announced the new grant opportunity last week, inviting any group or agency with a project that improves

By Taylor Knopf Two years ago, Jasmine Hopkins was living out of her vehicle with a toddler and a newborn in Pitt County. “At that time, I was going through some personal things. I just needed a little more support and help,” Hopkins, 25, said. A social worker referred Hopkins to a state-funded program called

By Rose Hoban It appears that this season’s flu is starting to wane from the peak number of cases reported to officials at the state Department of Health and Human Services several weeks ago. But DHHS Sec. Mandy Cohen told lawmakers at the General Assembly on Wednesday that rates of flu activity remain higher than

By Rose Hoban Dozens of North Carolina hospitals have placed restrictions on who gets to visit patients this winter, as flu cases in the state are ramping up after a slow start. And Health and Human Services Sec. Mandy Cohen predicts the flu season is going to get worse. That’s what Cohen told lawmakers at

By Rose Hoban & Taylor Knopf In today’s political climate, it can be a dangerous thing to try to predict the future. But each NC Health News reporter looked at what trends and stories they’ll likely be following in 2018. Today, we take a look at federal and state policies that could change the health