Michelle Crouch | The Charlotte Ledger/NC Health News
-
Atrium and Novant won’t sell their debt to a charity that buys medical debt and forgives it, saying they already have charity care policies. A retired Atrium physician is on a quest to change that.
-
The new North Carolina law was passed in the waning hours of the legislative session, but advocates worry it may go too far and hurt mental health patients.
-
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.
-
A shortage of psychiatrists is forcing teens in crisis into crowded emergency rooms and inpatient centers as anxiety and depression surge; "the constant answer was wait, wait and wait."
-
Dozens of children have been forced to sleep on the floor of Mecklenburg County offices over the past year because of a severe shortage of foster homes and crisis beds, according to the county Department of Social Services.
-
A critical shortage of nursing home inspectors and a surge of complaints means some residents wait months for the state to investigate problems.
-
A North Carolina bill aims to reduce wait times for insurance approvals; "They deny and delay and hope you go away."
-
The CMS policy says a high school student who misses more than 10 days of any class — whether the absence is excused or unexcused — will fail the course. To avoid a failing grade, a student must get a special medical waiver or make up the time through a process called “attendance recovery.” Although the rule has been in place since 1970, CMS is aggressively enforcing it this year as it tries to get students back on track after the pandemic, when absences soared and school performance tanked.