Angst mounts over lack of details about UNC-Carolinas health merger
UNC Health Care in
The information blackout makes it impossible for anyone to assess whether such a business deal would be good for
Earlier this week,
On Thursday, UNC system
Their concern: The UNC system includes UNC-Chapel Hill's medical school, which could be subsumed into the UNC-Carolinas partnership.
"We don't know who's going to be in control," Daughtry said. "We really are somewhat frustrated that we are at this position."
Daughtry spoke after a two-hour closed-door meeting of the special committee. At that meeting, committee members heard about the nation's hospital consolidation trend from outside specialists, including health care lawyer
On Friday. N.C. Treasurer
"We have this ever-increasing buildup of concentration of power in the hands of fewer people, which, at the end of the day, impacts the affordability of the product I have the responsibility to try to deliver," Folwell said at the BOG meeting. "I'm trying to sustain these plans, and anything that impacts the accessibility or the affordability of health care for the people that I have the constitutional and fiduciary responsibility to serve, then I get concerned about it."
Asked if he is officially opposing the UNC-Carolinas partnership, Folwell demurred: "I'm not in the business of N-O, but I have to be in the business of K-N-O-W."
Asked about the complaints, a Carolinas spokeswoman referred questions to its negotiating partner in
In the broad outline of the partnership, the joint operating committee would be controlled by an independent board. The company would have a new name and its own headquarters, none of which has been decided.
Responding to Folwell's concerns Friday, UNC Health Care CEO
"The thing that we are trying to do daily -- including trying to do this partnership that we're working on -- is improve the health of North Carolinians," Roper said. "That's the answer, ultimately, to the cost of health care in America."
Later, in an interview, Folwell said there are more than 100 hospitals in
The UNC Board of Governors held a lengthy closed session Friday in which it got an update on the proposed health care partnership. Six members recused themselves because of potential ethical conflicts and were not in the room --
Afterward, UNC President
"We're moving along, but as you know these are complicated things and they take some time," Spellings said. "They are asking all the right things, they understand what this is about, they get the full implications."
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