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Cohen talks to state lawmakers about #Medicaid and COVID19 modeling. Meanwhile, the @MeckCounty health director gave a sobering testimony. northcarolinahealthnews.org/2… #ncga #ncpol #coronavirusNC #COVID19NC

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Sen Ralph Hise

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Duke-UNC basketball rivalry has lessons for Medicaid transformation

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Duke-UNC basketball rivalry has lessons for Medicaid transformation - North Carolina Health News

NC lawmakers get a bit of locker room talk with their latest Medicaid transformation update.

By Anne Blythe Whether you believe that politics has become a blood sport or sports have become too political, it’s hard to dispute the long-standing comparisons between the two. So on Tuesday, when key North Carolina lawmakers came together to talk about the state Department of Health and Human Services’ decision to put an indefinite […]

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What stories grabbed you in 2019? NC Health News most-read stories of the year

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What stories grabbed you in 2019? NC Health News most-read stories of the year - North Carolina Health News

What piqued your interest this year? We review which stories grabbed peoples' attention, got passed around and shared widely.

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 […]

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House budget override narrows path to Medicaid expansion

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House budget override narrows path to Medicaid expansion - North Carolina Health News

The path for North Carolina to extend health insurance benefits to low-income workers was always rough, but events at the legislature Wednesday made the path rockier.

By Rose Hoban In a dramatic turn of events early Wednesday morning, House Republicans successfully held a vote to override Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of the state budget when few Democrats were in the chamber to vote against the measure. (See box.) The vote means now the budget override moves to the Senate chamber, where […]

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Legislative funding proposal needed to facilitate Medicaid changeover

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Legislative funding proposal needed to facilitate Medicaid changeover - North Carolina Health News

In order for Medicaid to shift to managed care later this year, the General Assembly needs to pass legislation and fund it. But the proposal contains a poison pill for the Department of Health and Human Services.

By Rose Hoban For the past eight weeks, Gov. Roy Cooper and the General Assembly have been locked in a budget stalemate largely over the governor’s desire to expand the Medicaid program to cover an estimated additional half million people, while the Republican majority in the legislature have staunchly refused to move on the question. […]

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North Carolina continues to slow creation of beds for dementia patients

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North Carolina continues to slow creation of beds for dementia patients - North Carolina Health News

A reader wrote to NC Health News after noticing the ongoing moratorium on new beds in Alzheimer's special care units in the 2019 legislative budgets. What’s the rationale behind the moratorium, and what does it mean?

By Emily Davis North Carolina is greying, and with it, more people are predicted to develop Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia. According to the Alzheimer’s Association, approximately 170,000 people lived with Alzheimer’s disease in North Carolina in 2018. This statistic is projected to increase by 23.5 percent in 2025, to a total of […]

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rows of nurses in white coats sit facing a speaker

Nursing students ready to go to rural NC, but need more autonomy

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Nursing students ready to go to rural NC, but need more autonomy - North Carolina Health News

This year’s nursing advocacy day at the General Assembly was a display of the number and breadth of nursing practice in North Carolina.

By Taylor Knopf A sea of white coats descended on the state capital Wednesday as more than a thousand nursing students from around the state came to push lawmakers on some of the biggest health care issues of this legislative work session. The main talking points during the N.C. Nurses Association’s “2019 Nurses Day at […]

graphic of a hands touching on a ipad with body parts shown on it

Mental health providers, others ask for delay to electronic health record requirement

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Mental health providers, others ask for delay to electronic health record requirement - North Carolina Health News

June 1 is the date for many psychiatrists, counselors, drug treatment centers and others to be hooked up to the state’s health information exchange.

By Rose Hoban As North Carolina quickly moves toward transforming Medicaid from a state-paid system to one run by managed care companies, lawmakers have been pushing providers to get their health records into electronic form. Now, as deadlines loom, some of those providers are pushing back. While most hospital systems and large clinics and physician […]

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Advanced practice nurses press legislature for autonomy from MD supervision

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Advanced practice nurses press legislature for autonomy from MD supervision - North Carolina Health News

This year, the nurses have some powerful allies, and perhaps timing, favoring their quest for more independence.

By Rose Hoban Debbie Varnam runs a busy primary care practice in the Brunswick County town of Shallotte. The town is small enough that her 2,500 or so patients at Seaside Wellness make up a sizable portion of the town. Varnam says she’s also got a collegial relationship with other practitioners in the area, including […]

happy new year

NC Health Policy and Trends to Watch For in 2019 – Part 2

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NC Health Policy and Trends to Watch For in 2019 – Part 2 - North Carolina Health News

We asked our reporters to take a look in their cloudy crystal balls and tell us what might be the big issues to follow in the coming year. Today, we look ahead to environmental health and legislative issues and the future of Medicaid.

By Greg Barnes, Sarah Ovaska-Few & Rose Hoban   Environmental health issues will continue to make headlines At N.C. Health News, environmental health reporting promises to start the New Year where it left off in 2018. GenX, the environmental story that dominated the headlines last year, will be back in the news by early January, […]

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