Archives: Katherine Restrepo

In North Carolina, nurse practitioners (NP) can’t treat patients unless they establish a collaborative practice agreement with a supervising doctor – a written contract that outlines patient management, prescribing authorities,…

Health care experts are calling for more transparency in how tax dollars are being spent on physician residency programs. North Carolina ranks 5th in the nation in the amount…

North Carolina doesn’t have a doctor shortage. Doctors just aren’t choosing to practice medicine in sparsely populated towns. “The real problem is maldistribution,” says Dr. Erin Fraher, Director of…

The number of mega-deal hospital merger and acquisitions hit an all-time high last year, and one of those multi-billion dollar transactions features the proposed partnership between UNC Health Care and Carolinas…

Recently, The Wall Street Journal featured a story about rural North Carolina’s perpetual economic struggle. Not even lucrative taxpayer-backed incentive packages can hard sell mega companies like Toyota, Mazda,…

For patients living in rural North Carolina, access to health care can be hard to find. Over 1.4 million people live in primary care shortage areas. That’s 14 percent of…

Abstract North Carolina is one of 18 states that do not have a telemedicine parity law, which forces insurance companies to pay health care providers for services treated via…

It’s that time of year again. Time to renew your health plan, that is. The Affordable Care Act’s 2017 health insurance enrollment period is beyond its midpoint, and…

This week, the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Health and Human Services met to discuss a variety of policy issues, including telemedicine. Defined as “delivering health care at a distance,”…

“Physician happiness is inversely proportional to the amount of bureaucratic drag on their lives,” says Dr. Doug Farrago. Farrago, a “recovering” hospital-employed physician, was one of many speakers to address…