Healthcare Legislation Moves Through The North Carolina Senate

Last week, Senate Bill 978, “Healthcare Competition Reforms” was approved by the Senate Health Committee after substantial modifications were made to the bill originally focused on hospital merger. The bill now sits in the budget committee, which will need to approve it before it heads toward rules, then the full Senate floor.  

Health Committee Chair Sen. Jim Burgin said he originally considered the bill in response news that Atrium and Wake Med were considering a merger. That merger was delayed after significant concerns were raised about by Republican elected officials.  

Bill when originally filed focused on the regulatory process for nonprofit hospital mergers, but once it made committee this key policy change was removed. Instead, the bill focused on whistle-blower protections for healthcare employees, removal of noncompete clauses for some healthcare workers, and a cap on nonprofit hospital pay.  

• The bill would cap annual compensation from CEOs of nonprofit hospitals at 400 times the pay of the lowest-paid full-time employees. WakeMed and Atrium are both nonprofit systems.  

• The legislation clarifies whistleblower protections for healthcare workers, and eliminates noncompete clauses for some healthcare workers. A report from the NC Health Talent Alliance shows that demand for healthcare workers is rising faster than the supply, and the elimination of noncompete clauses would allow more healthcare workers to stay in the state.  

• It also excepted the State Treasurer’s office from DHHS review for any new institutional health service, developed, or acquired by any entity working in partnership or conjunction with the Department of Treasurer. This would effectively allow the Treasurer to bypass the onerous certificate of needs laws, reducing the cost to taxpayers in providing healthcare through the State Health plan. 

Left-Wing Media Bias Alert 

While the News and Observer, WRAL, and WCNC focused on substance of the bill and the WakeMed Atrium merger, which the bill sponsor credited with inspiring the bill, NC Newsline worked with left-wing Sen. Julie Mayfield to attack Mission Hospital. As previously discussed, NC Newsline is a left-wing dark money outlet, often simply regurgitating progressive talking points.  

In their coverage of the article, they allowed Mayfield to claim —without evidence— that several healthcare workers were fired for speaking with federal and state regulators and that noncompete clauses forced them to leave Western North Carolina.  

As noted in the article, a Mission spokeswoman refuted saying, “Mission Hospital offers numerous avenues for employees to identify issues and share feedback, including anonymous reporting options, employee engagement groups, patient care councils, and established processes for submitting and tracking operational and patient care concerns. We not only encourage team members to raise concerns, we expect it. Our focus remains on supporting our workforce and delivering safe, high-quality care to the communities we serve.”