In New Hanover County, the possibility of selling the county-owned hospital has ignited a storm of gossip and conspiracy theories, pitted the county’s leaders against one another, and mobilized some 200 residents into attending a Save Our Hospital protest meeting Tuesday, Jan. 21. But if the…
North Carolina’s state pension plan is prepared to weather another recession, a Pew Charitable Trusts stress test says. North Carolina has the sixth best-funded state pension plan in the nation. It boasted a 90.7% funded ratio in 2017, leaping over the…
The N.C. Department of Transportation’s financial woes may be over, but its headaches live on. After the department overspent by $2 billion, the legislature gave the department $200 million, but at a price. The department must undergo a performance audit, and…
N.C. Transportation Secretary James Trogdon is a bad manager and should be replaced, says State Treasurer Dale Folwell. The transportation department, which is in a financial bind after overspending by about $2 billion this year, deserves a leader with better oversight,…
One of the most significant documents in N.C. public education is being kept under lock and key. The WestEd report is supposed to restart proceedings in the Leandro court case. After 25 years, the dispute over education opportunities hasn’t found a conclusion. …
With fiscal forecasts predicting the State Health Plan will go broke in four years, the N.C. treasurer is hatching new tactics to push hospitals into clear pricing. State Treasurer Dale Folwell has been fighting hospital systems for months. He planned to save the State Health…
State employees are no longer in immediate danger of paying out-of-network costs for their health care, but they may confront higher premiums and higher taxes later. State Treasurer Dale Folwell’s Clear Pricing Project has folded, and its proposed reforms won’t touch hospitals. But the fiscal…
Hospitals have won. For now. State Treasurer Dale Folwell’s attempt to rope them into the Clear Pricing Project is scuttled. Under the new version of the State Health Plan, hospitals will remain in the status quo, under their previous Blue Cross Blue Shield contracts.
Hospitals have called the treasurer’s bluff. The deadline for hospital signups onto the State Health Plan expired Monday, yet the plan remains bereft of major hospital networks. “We have no news to report. Generally speaking, nothing has changed regarding the boycott of the State…
Roughly a week after State Treasurer Dale Folwell sweetened the State Health Plan, major hospitals don’t seem tempted by the treasurer’s latest carrot. As negotiations devolve into a struggle of wills that resembles nothing so much as an escalating game of chicken, hospitals are eyeing the…
