Many North Carolina residents with old medical debt recently got some good news. All of the state’s biggest hospital systems, including Atrium Health and Novant Health, have agreed to a new plan that promises them higher federal payments in exchange for forgiving some of patients’ old debt. Atrium agreed to the plan just before the deadline to do so, but expressed concerns. Cristina Bolling, of the Charlotte Ledger Business Newsletter, joined WFAE to talk about this plan and other business news of the week.
Chris Jones: First Cristina, we want to know who qualifies to have their medical debt forgiven under this plan?
Cristina Bolling: Yeah. So this new state program forgives medical debt that's deemed uncollectible dating back to 2014 for low- and middle-income patients. You know, in North Carolina, medical debt is such a huge and growing problem. One in five residents across the state have medical debt in collections. And in Mecklenburg County alone, there's more than 137,000 residents — the medical debt that would be eligible for relief under this plan.
Jones: So, Atrium signed on, but they did so a little reluctantly. Do we know why that is?
Bolling: When Atrium signed on, its leader said in a letter to state officials that they had some concerns about the program. They said that the program could hurt financially-struggling rural hospitals. You know, they also pointed out that hospitals account for less than half of the U.S. health care spending. And they said, you know, other players in the health care world also drive up the cost of care — like insurance companies that have high deductibles — said, you know, they said that they should have been factored into the state's policy, too.
Jones: Well, let's go ahead and move on to the Olympics, which are now over. But a Charlotte company that received millions in state funds to help attract athletes to the Charlotte area is facing some scrutiny. Why is that?
Bolling: Yeah. So we're talking about the U.S. Performance Center, a lot of people may not have heard about it. It's a company that was founded in 2012 and the goal was to train athletes and to attract Olympic sport-governing bodies to the Charlotte area. And the thought was that it could help pave the way for Charlotte to eventually host a Summer Olympics.
There have been some investigations published in recent days by two North Carolina media outlets, The Assembly and the Raleigh News & Observer. And according to those articles, the U.S, Performance Center and a nonprofit that's associated with it — which is called the North Carolina Sports Legacy Foundation — collected $55 million from the General Assembly in the last few years.
And they've spent a lot of the money on consulting fees and not so much on capital expenses. You know the investigations also, you know, showed that they don't have a whole lot of accomplishments to point to. A company spokesman for the U.S. Performance Center told The Assembly that it has hosted more than 200 athletic tournaments. It's brought in hundreds of thousands of visitors to Charlotte, and they said that it's a finalist to host the 2027 Military World Games in Charlotte.
Jones: Let's end on a long-time mystery of Charlotte business that the Ledger probed — and that's where do Bo-Berries come from. What did you learn about how Bojangles is working to grow beyond its southern roots?
Bolling: Yeah. So we recently sat down with Tom Boland, he's a chief marketing officer at Bojangles, which as you might know started as a small Charlotte restaurant in 1977. Bojangles is now expanding into a bunch of other markets, including ones in New Jersey, in Phoenix, Las Vegas, and even Los Angeles. And in addition to pushing into these other cities, they're also ramping up their sports marketing deals.
One that they're testing partnerships with is WWE World Wrestling Entertainment. They say those WWE fans are fanatics, and if you can partner with them, you can pass along, you know, that excitement for a fast-food brand.
Jones: Of course, awesome. So we may be coming across some Bo-Berry biscuits as far as California, that is exciting. It's a true North Carolina marvel. Well, thank you so much, Cristina Bolling with the Charlotte Ledger Business Newsletter.
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