Atrium Health

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.

Medical debt is a fact of life for millions of people in the U.S., and when patients receive a medical bill that they can’t or don’t pay, some hospitals will take them to court. A new study outlines the extent of this practice in North Carolina.

$23 million — that’s how much Charlotte’s two largest hospital systems, Atrium Health and Novant Health, avoid paying in taxes on their Mecklenburg County properties that are valued at more than $2.4 billion. NC Health News and the Charlotte Ledger Business Newsletter analyzed local records to figure that out. Michelle Crouch, the reporter who wrote the story, joins WFAE's Marshall Terry to discuss.

The number of gunshot victims in Atrium Health’s emergency rooms is staggering and rising. The health system released a report that shows a 54% increase over five years.