UPDATE: SEANC Executive Director Ardis Watkins has sent a formal letter to the Wake County Board of Commissioners urging them to vote no, or at a minimum, to postpone the vote until the Board has held public listening sessions where employees, patients, and State Health Plan stakeholders can be heard on the record.

You can read the full letter here: seanc.org/assets/wake-county-final.pdf

Atrium Health, the state's largest hospital system, announced Friday it wants to absorb WakeMed Health & Hospitals — and Wake County commissioners are set to vote on the deal this Monday night. SEANC is urging them to vote no.

The stakes for NC state employees are straightforward: when hospitals consolidate, prices go up. That cost flows directly into the State Health Plan, and from there, into the paychecks and out-of-pocket expenses of the more than 700,000 state employees, retirees, and dependents who depend on it.

North Carolina State Treasurer Brad Briner said it plainly when the deal was announced: "There is a simple business principle that when suppliers consolidate and competition is reduced, it is the consumers who suffer. If history is any guide, this merger will not benefit the public." Briner has called on Attorney General Jeff Jackson and the Federal Trade Commission to scrutinize the proposal carefully.

SEANC agrees — and we've seen this play out before in North Carolina. When Novant Health acquired New Hanover Regional Medical Center, SEANC attended the public listening sessions and raised the same concerns. Citizens were heard. The sale went through anyway. Prices went up shortly after.

Atrium is already one of the largest nonprofit health systems in the country, part of the $32 billion Advocate Health network stretching from Georgia to Wisconsin. Absorbing WakeMed — Wake County's only independent hospital system and home to the region's only Level I trauma center — would give Atrium a dominant market position across Charlotte, the Triad, and now the Triangle. Every insurance plan covering Wake County residents, including the State Health Plan, would negotiate from a weaker position as a result. That is not a theoretical risk. It is a pattern with a documented track record.

This is also not just a Wake County issue. The State Health Plan covers employees and retirees in all 100 counties. When a dominant provider gains pricing leverage in a major market, the cost impact spreads across the entire plan.

Even if Monday's vote proceeds, the deal still faces regulatory review by the Attorney General's office and the Federal Trade Commission before any formal integration begins. SEANC will continue to make the case at every stage of that process.

State employees deserve a State Health Plan that can negotiate on an equal footing. That gets harder every time an independent hospital disappears into a mega-system. We will keep fighting to make sure your voice is heard — in Wake County and in Raleigh.