North Carolina state government is facing a severe cash crunch. The General Assembly needs to examine every part of the state budget to mitigate the problem through lower spending rather than higher taxes. N.C. Senate leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, announced in April the Senate would not try to override Gov. Roy Cooper’s budget veto because...
An 87-year-old doctor set up a hotspot in a rural eastern North Carolina parking lot to treat patients who don’t have internet access and can’t do virtual visits at home. But only one in four patients at Roanoke Chowan Community Health Centers has reliable transportation — and doctors who want to use recent telemedicine reforms...
Lawmakers shifted their focus away from the coronavirus surge for the first time during the Tuesday, April 14, meeting of the House Committee on COVID-19 Health Care Working Group. Legislators focused on the damage the pandemic is wreaking on the infrastructure of the state’s health care system. The virus has drained revenue from urban and...
Every level of government has shifted its focus to respond to the spreading coronavirus. Recently, the country watched as both chambers of Congress voted to pass the massive relief package known as the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. The CARES Act was the third coronavirus response bill passed by Congress. The Coronavirus...
Surgeon Wade Naziri offers his patients transparent, cash-based prices at his independent surgery center. It’s a novel concept in an environment of rising costs and hidden prices. Naziri began fighting for price transparency because his patients couldn’t afford out-of-network weight loss surgery at Greenville’s local hospital — which billed one of his patients $54,000. So,...
What comes to mind when you think of the term “health care delivery?” Most people probably think of entities like doctors’ offices, insurers, hospitals, and pharmacies. These are the most common ways in which people access the health care system, as this has been the status quo in health care for some time. But health care delivery is changing,...
Legislators are looking at a controversial reform to lower patients’ medical bills for surgery in North Carolina. Would-be reformers want to introduce more competition into North Carolina’s health care system by partially freeing ambulatory surgery centers from Certificate of Need laws — an obscure regulation that controls the supply of medical care — but they...
A surgeon’s lawsuit against state restrictions on medical equipment has fallen victim to an obscure procedural rule. Dr. Gajendra Singh of Winston-Salem wanted to provide his patients affordable MRI scans, but he can’t buy an MRI scanner without getting state permission under Certificate of Need laws. Singh challenged North Carolina’s CON laws as monopolistic and...
North Carolina is a model for states looking to defuse a looming debt crisis over unfunded health care benefits for state retirees, the Manhattan Institute says in a report. State and local governments have a $1.1 trillion hole in their promises to state employees, as of a 2015 Federal Reserve estimate. North Carolina alone bears...
A surgeon fighting state restrictions on medical equipment lost a court battle Friday, Jan. 9, when Superior Court Judge Gregory McGuire dismissed his specific complaints and sent his broader constitutional challenge before a three-judge panel. Dr. Gajendra Singh can’t give his patients affordable MRI scans because Certificate of Need laws allow the state to decide...
It was a tumultuous year for lawmakers in the General Assembly. Lasting well into October, this ‘long session’ was unusually long compared to years past. As will be the case in the 2020 election cycle, health care dominated the issues discussed during policymaking in this session. Many bills related to health care were introduced. While...
