Becky Andrews, WakeMed’s vice president of finance, spoke to the News & Observer about the legislation’s new reporting requirements for non-profit hospitals.

Dr. Susan Weaver, Senior Vice President for WakeMed Physician Practices and a primary care physician, spoke to NBC-17 about providing health care for the uninsured and the shortage of primary care doctors.

Dr. Bill Atkinson, president and CEO of WakeMed, told News 14 Carolina that health care reform could provide a major economic boost for North Carolina with the legislation’s emphasis on information technology. See the video above for Dr. Atkinson’s interview on WRAL about the implications of the legislation for Americans and our nation’s hospitals.

But overseas is not the only place where we experience terrorism.  When people organize with the purpose to cause harm it creates a state of fear – whether the violence happens in your own neighborhood or in the Middle East. 

When a young man is shot after being sought out following a confrontation at the local club Envy (formerly known as Black Tie), or most recently, when a Domino’s assistant manager is fatally assaulted in a robbery attempt* – these incidents are examples of terrorism in our own neighborhood. This is violence we must band together to eradicate. 

Let’s strengthen our communities, work with our neighbors to turn the criminals in and send a clear message that this kind of violence will not be tolerated.

* Note that law enforcement is looking to the community for leads to help catch the Domino’s thief and killer.  A reward fund has also been set up with Eastern Wake Crime Stoppers. Anonymous tips can also be filed by calling the Knightdale Police Department (919) 217-2261.

Let’s hope we see real action taken on health care reform by the end of this year so we are not having this same conversation in 2026.

The new payment structure we’re discussing will be designed to focus on the quality of care, instead of the amount of health care services provided.  Currently the nation employs a fee-for-service model where providers are paid for each service they deliver.  The AHA task force is devoting a good amount of time discussing the concept of bundling of payments – where all providers involved in a patient’s care will be paid one flat fee on an “incident of care” basis.  This bundling, as proposed by the government, would encourage teamwork among health care providers, improve cost efficiency and enhance health care quality and safety. Equally important, it will allow for better distribution and use of existing resources and therefore improve the access to care.

As a first step, we have identified several recommended guidance principles to help ensure that all health care providers across the nation are fairly compensated.  This includes figuring out how to handle the differences between various markets, types of institutions and physician practices and payment populations.  It’s important for our nation to create a sustainable model that will work for physicians and, of course, hospitals of all types:  rural hospitals that treat fewer patients, inner city hospitals that primarily care for low-income or uninsured patients and large non-profit hospital systems like WakeMed. 

The AHA task force still has quite a way to go because the national health care system is extremely complex, but when the work is complete, I will share with you a copy of the task force’s final observations and recommendations related to nation-wide reform.