Atrium Health

The protesters were pressing the hospital authority board to honor affordable housing promises as the system reported soaring 2025 revenues. Meanwhile, union workers from affiliated facilities in the Midwest decried working conditions.

Residents and advocates pressed county commissioners to use their limited oversight power to hold the health care giant accountable for affordable-housing promises tied to development of the Pearl.

The first phase of Charlotte’s mixed-use medical district just outside uptown, The Pearl, opened in July. It includes a campus of the Wake Forest University School of Medicine, a surgical training center, and medical technology companies. But it’s what The Pearl doesn’t include that has some city and county leaders wanting answers.

There’s big higher education news in Charlotte this week. Queens University of Charlotte on Tuesday announced it’s merging with Elon University. To look at the business trends driving this merger and talk about other business news of the week, Tony Mecia of the Charlotte Ledger Business Newsletter joined WFAE’s Marshall Terry for our segment BizWorthy.

Triangle-based Duke Health has crossed into the Piedmont region, expanding its footprint into Atrium Health and Novant Health territory. Duke acquired Lake Norman Regional in Mooresville in April and will rebrand the hospital as Duke Health Lake Norman. What will this mean for health care?

UNC Charlotte could soon become one of the few universities in the country to offer a degree in artificial intelligence. The school is seeking permission from the UNC Board of Governors and plans to start offering the undergraduate degree through its College of Computing and Informatics next year.

The parents of a transgender child say Atrium Health told them it will end gender-affirming care for youth by the end of the month. However, there has been no clarification from the system.

Some critics say it appears Atrium Health is double dipping on tax refunds. Under North Carolina law, nonprofits like Atrium are limited to $45 million in sales tax refunds each year. But the hospital system may have used a legal loophole to get an even bigger refund. WFAE's Marshall Terry and The Ledger's Tony Mecia discuss this local business news, and more, on this week's BizWorthy.

Atrium Health, the state’s top collector of medical debt in recent years, has quietly stopped suing patients for unpaid medical bills. Patient advocates praised the move but noted that hundreds of people still have judgments against them.