News Stories

Diabetes affects more than 30 million Americans, and 1 in 4 don’t know they have it, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. African Americans and other populations of color are especially at risk. But here’s good news: with moderate exercise and a healthy diet, diabetes can often be controlled — and even prevented, says Dr. John R. Smith Jr., lead medical director at Blue Cross & Blue Shield of North Carolina.

A majority of Supreme Court justices questioned whether the federal government could avoid an obligation to pay billions of dollars to health insurers that sold consumer policies on exchanges created by the Affordable Care Act... Insurers before the Supreme Court include Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, Moda Health Plan Inc. and Land of Lincoln Mutual Health Insurance Co.

Homeless couples with children needing emergency shelter soon will have more options to stay together, thanks to a new program at the Salvation Army Center of Hope. The shelter, which previously accepted only women and children, has added rooms for entire families, including fathers. A two-year, $300,00 grant from Blue Cross Blue Shield of north Carolina funded renovations at the shelter, program staffing, hotel vouchers and money for up-front housing costs like rent and deposits for families after leaving the shelter.

Small business owners with one to 50 employees can cut the cost of their employee insurance plans by as much as 15 percent with a new Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina plan offered in strict partnership with Wake Forest Baptist Health.

Almost a year after Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina teamed up with five N.C. health systems to curb medical cost increases, the insurer announced this week that Charlotte’s two major health care systems have joined the plan. With the addition of Atrium Health and Novant Health, the program, called Blue Premier, will be working with seven of the state’s largest health systems starting next year.

A few months ago, an employee of a large health system and I spoke about the current state of our health system. He shared a very sad account of a family member with a brain tumor. As the hospital system and the insurer worked through the rather inefficient approval processes leading up to the surgery, the tumor more than doubled in size requiring a more invasive and risky removal procedure.

Imagine you are sitting at your desk one morning, and you have just received some distressful news about your company — a high-level data breach, for example. You start to feel some tightness in your chest because of the magnitude of the news. Then your arm starts tingling. A few minutes later, your smart watch has sent you a notification that your heart rate and blood pressure levels are not normal.