As Atrium pursues WakeMed, a look inside its last big North Carolina deal
Latest
Readers power every story we tell.
North Carolina Health Series
COVID-19 IN NC
More News
What is Medetomidine? The latest threat in the street drug supply
By Taylor Knopf Key Takeaways: North Carolina’s supply of illicit street drugs is in a constant state of change. People are no longer buying just heroin, fentanyl or opioid pills anymore, as most samples of these illegal drugs have more than one substance in them. People often don’t know what is in their drugs because…
Same knee surgery, twice the price: Hospital monopolies push up healthcare costs
By Peter Whoriskey KFF Health News More than a million times a year, a U.S. surgeon slices open a knee, strips out worn cartilage, caps the leg bones with metal, and drops in a plastic spacer to allow the new joint to glide. While knee replacement procedures have become standard, however, the prices charged have…
Trump has quietly throttled an agency devoted to the safety of American healthcare
By Arthur Allen KFF Health News The Trump administration has effectively shut down most of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s activities, closing the spigot on federal funding estimated to have saved thousands of lives and billions of dollars over the past 27 years by improving medical practice. In a July 15 letter, the…
Dogwood notifies attorney general’s office that HCA is in ‘potential noncompliance’ with Mission sale contract
By Ted Clifford Asheville Watchdog A report from the independent monitor tasked with supervising Mission Hospital has found two areas of “potential noncompliance” with the agreement HCA Healthcare signed when buying the hospital in 2019. The potential violations were a warning from federal regulators in October 2025 that Mission stood to lose Medicaid and Medicare…
Turning school food waste into hunger relief
Key takeaways: By Will Atwater At Olive Chapel Elementary in Apex, students are learning that what they leave on their lunch trays can help feed someone else. Since joining SHARE — Stop Hunger and Restore Earth — in 2025, the Wake County public school has turned food waste into a hands-on lesson in fighting hunger…
NC Health News wins 10 awards in state press contest
NC Health News won 10 awards — including three first-place awards — in the annual North Carolina Press Association contest for 2026. Staff also won two second-place and five third-place awards. The press association honored work published from April 1, 2025, through March 31, 2026. NC Health News was judged among its peers in the…
