Atrium Health and Novant Health have been the two dominating hospital systems in the Charlotte region for years. That’s about to change.
Triangle-based Duke Health has crossed into the Piedmont region and seeks to expand its footprint for the first time across the state.
Duke Health acquired Lake Norman Regional in Mooresville at a cost of $284 million, in April. It will rebrand itself as Duke Health Lake Norman. Just prior, Duke also announced a partnership with Novant to develop new campuses across North Carolina, claiming the collaboration will expand access to affordable, high-quality care. Duke's goal is to "touch 25% of the lives in North Carolina."
In recent years, scores of hospital expansions, mergers and acquisitions have created multi-billion-dollar hospital empires across the nation.
Currently, construction is on-going at Atrium Health’s flagship Carolinas Medical Center campus. The $900 million tower is expected to be completed by spring 2027 and is set to bring 448 more beds in a 12-story building. Novant Health opened their expanded Matthews Medical Center this year, bringing additional beds and space at a $170 million price tag. Atrium controls nearly half of the market in the region, while Novant holds nearly 35 percent, according to national rating agencies.
As these expansions and partnerships promise added benefits, some research indicates that acquisitions do little to improve the quality of care and can drive up prices.
We ask if Duke's move to shake up the Charlotte medical market could give patients more choice and potentially better care or does more consolidation risk less local control and higher costs? We discuss competition, care access, costs and what happens when powerful hospital systems battle for dominance.
GUESTS:
Michelle Crouch, independent health care journalist who writes for The Charlotte Ledger and North Carolina Health News
Matthew Hanis, consultant and expert in the business of health care; co-founder & chief operating officer at Goldie Health
Barak Richman, professor of business law; co-director, Health Law & Policy Program at George Washington University; senior scholar, the Clinical Excellence Research Center at the Stanford School of Medicine
