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Published on August 09, 2023

Cone Health Will Appeal Decision Allowing Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Hospital in Greensboro

State decision runs counter to spirit of laws designed to keep a lid on health care costs.

  

Greensboro – Cone Health will appeal a state decision approving Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist’s plan to build a hospital in one of the wealthiest communities in Greensboro. 

The proposed hospital will bring higher health care costs, add no medical services not already available close by and would not serve people living in areas needing more health care options.

“This is a poor decision for everyone needing health care in this area,” says Cone Health CEO Dr. Mary Jo Cagle. “This community doesn’t need a very expensive facility duplicating most of the same services offered by a Cone Health facility just two miles away. Cone Health is already the lower-cost provider. Our quality is already top tier.  People in our community already have options when it comes to health care. This decision runs counter to how CON is supposed to work.” 

North Carolina is a certificate of need (CON) state. That means an organization must show that building a hospital in a community is needed, would improve care and wouldn’t increase the costs of health care. This governmental oversight is designed to avoid a “medical arms race” where unneeded, expensive facilities and equipment would be clustered in certain areas driving costs higher for everyone. 

Cone Health maintains the proposed hospital puts profits over patients. Since the state says Guilford County doesn’t need additional hospital beds or operating rooms, Atrium Health plans to move those assets from its High Point Medical Center. People living in the area around the proposed Atrium hospital in Greensboro have 1.6 times the average median income than those around High Point Medical Center. And the $246 million the Greensboro hospital will cost, is money that won’t be invested in expanding care to those High Point communities. 

Cone Health also maintains that the proposed hospital will be a way station to Winston-Salem for anyone needing more than routine hospital care. People being transferred to Atrium-Wake Forest Baptist Health would face higher academic medical center costs. 

As a community hospital, Cone Health believes people should receive high-quality, advanced care close to close to home. Cone Health is on track to invest more than $500 million in new facilities this decade. This investment includes the following: 

  • Cone Health Women’s & Children’s Center at Moses Cone Hospital (Opened February 23, 2020)
  • Cone Health MedCenter for Women (Opened May 3, 2021)
  • Guilford County Behavioral Health Urgent Care Center (in partnership with Guilford County) (Opened May 2, 2022)
  • Cone Health MedCenter Greensboro (Opened May 12, 2022) 

Cone Health recently broke ground on a new heart & vascular tower at Moses Cone Hospital. This facility will open in fall 2025. We will open an addition to Alamance Regional Medical Center this summer. It will bring additional cardiovascular services to that community.

Plans are underway to open the Cone Health Cancer Center Asheboro in fall 2024.