A report released from North Carolina State Treasurer Dale Folwell says the seven largest hospital systems reaped sizeable financial benefits last year, even as they received billions of dollars in federal pandemic assistance.

The Medicaid expansion bill includes significant changes to Certificate of Need (CON) regulations, which has already received strong pushback from the North Carolina Healthcare Association, a group that represents North Carolina hospitals.

The health provider and insurer disagree on reimbursement policies and rates.

As the omicron variant continues to climb, these figures are all but certain to increase.

On Tuesday, Governor Roy Cooper announced an extension of Executive Order 224, which mandates state employees in cabinet agencies to be fully vaccinated or submit to weekly testing for COVID-19.

Months after a new health care price transparency rule went into effect, some North Carolina hospitals failed to show full compliance. Now, nearly a full year under the new rule, leaders from those hospitals say they are fully following the policy, but regulators have not publicly released information to show these hospitals are indeed in good standing.

Many North Carolina nonprofit hospitals are falling short in treating the poor for free or reduced rates to validate their tax-exempt status, State Treasurer Dale Folwell said Wednesday while highlighting a university report on charity care.

A North Carolina-based hospital system says more than 175 of its workers have been fired for failing to comply with its vaccination requirement.

COVID-19 has torn through the largely rural and racially-diverse community. In the past two weeks, 37 people have died from the disease. That represents more than 10% of those who have died from COVID-19 in the county since March of 2020.