Christine Craig is the Director of WakeMed’s Government Affairs Department
One of WakeMed’s top priorities for health care reform is focused on preserving Medicare and Medicaid payments to hospitals.  Currently, individuals 65 years and older qualify for our county’s public insurance program, Medicare.  The federal government pays for Medicare services delivered by hospitals and health care [...]

Congressman Brad Miller has been a great friend of WakeMed’s since his days in the North Carolina General Assembly in the 1990’s, and has since been elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. He’s on his way back up to Washington this week, and was able to stop by WakeMed on Monday to take a [...]

Billie Redmond, WakeMed’s Board Chair and small business owner, recently participated in the 2010 NC Economic Forecast’s special session on health care. After the discussion, moderator David Crabtree asked her to be a guest on his weekly show “On the Record.”  The topic: Why is health care reform necessary? If you missed it, watch the show [...]

Christine Craig is the Director of WakeMed’s Government Affairs Department
This morning I joined a couple of my colleagues for a “snow day” planning breakfast.  Those are the best types of meetings!   I shared with them WakeMed’s health care reform priorities.  After much discussion, one of my colleagues said “now this is what reform really [...]

The difficult economy has changed the face of the national health care workforce.  Senior nurses are returning to work, and applications to nursing schools and allied health programs are skyrocketing.  These highly qualified applicants are seeking a career in the stable, “economically immune” health care field. 
It is true that careers in health care are exceedingly [...]

The News & Observer posted a story announcing that the Senate has approved its version of the health care bill in a 60-39 vote after 24 days of debate.  The next step is for the Senate bill to be merged with the bill passed earlier in the House.  Congress’ goal is to have the merged bill on the President’s desk by [...]

In 1992 I was contacted by the editor of the Accent II, Aurora, Colorado’s weekly magazine inserted into the daily paper.  At the time, I was serving as the executive director of Humana Hospital Aurora.  The topic was health care reform.  This same article could be published today with very few tweaks and would be [...]

The major elements of the health care reform proposals being debated in Congress have remained the same from the start. The focus on improving quality, lowering costs and providing better access to health care has generated many meaningful proposals for reform that are supported by the American Hospital Association and many other healthcare providers. This [...]

Dr. Atkinson was recently featured in a documentary series on health care called “Focal Point: Critical Condition.” If you missed it last week, you can catch it here. The series examines the challenges that people and businesses in North Carolina face under the current health care system, and was produced by WRAL-TV.

A few weeks ago I spoke with a group of graduate students at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health about health care in America today. We talked about where the American Hospital Association (AHA) stands on reform, what to expect in future health care trends, and when to anticipate seeing real change in [...]