North Carolina
Risant Health plans to acquire North Carolina hospital system
Risant Health, the new organization founded by Kaiser Permanente, is planning to add its second hospital system.
Risant has announced plans to acquire Cone Health, based in Greensboro, North Carolina. Cone includes four acute care hospitals, a behavioral health facility, a health plan, and an accountable care organization caring for nearly 200,000 patients. Risant and Cone announced the plans late last week.
The move comes just a couple of months after Risant announced it had completed the acquisition of Geisinger Health in Pennsylvania.
In announcing its plans, Risant Health CEO Dr. Jaewon Ryu lauded Cone Health’s commitment to value-based care.
“Cone Health’s impressive work for decades in moving value-based care forward aligns so well with Risant Health’s vision for the future of healthcare,” Ryu said in a statement. “Their longstanding success and deep commitment to providing high-quality care to North Carolina communities make them an ideal fit to become a part of Risant Health.”
“We will work together to share our industry-leading expertise and innovation to expand access to value-based care to more people in the communities we serve,” Ryu said.
The organizations will need to secure the approval of regulators to complete the deal.
Under the plans, Cone Health will operate independently but will take advantage of resources and support from Risant Health.
Cone Health will retain its name and brand identity, along with its current leadership team and board of directors, the organizations said. Cone employs 13,000 workers and has 1,800 physicians.
Dr. Mary Jo Cagle, president and CEO of Cone Health, said joining Risant Health “presents a unique opportunity to shape the future of healthcare in the Triad, the state, and across the nation.”
“As part of Risant Health, Cone Health will build upon its long track record of success making evidence-based healthcare more accessible and affordable for more people. The people across the Triad will be among the first to benefit,” she said.
Risant has said its goal is to acquire community-based hospital systems focused on providing value-based care.
A nonprofit organization, Risant is based in Washington, D.C. Greg A. Adams, Kaiser Permanente’s CEO, is the chairman of Risant Health’s board and stressed the need for moving away from fee-for-service care.
“Risant Health has put a stake in the ground that care focused on evidence, equity, population health and improved outcomes must be the future of healthcare,” Adams said in a statement. “Models like that of Kaiser Permanente, Cone Health and Geisinger will help make that possible.”
After completing its acquisition of Geisinger in the spring, Risant reiterated its plans to acquire “4 to 5 additional leading community-based health systems over the next 4 to 5 years.”
Cone Health serves an area with strong growth and benefits from a favorable payer mix, with Medicaid and self-pay accounting for less than a fifth of its 2022 revenue, according to Fitch Ratings. Fitch has given Cone Health a stable outlook. Cone Health’s Triad market also boasts some big employers, and Toyota recently announced plans to invest nearly $8 billion and add nearly 3,000 jobs to a battery production plant.
Mae Douglas, chair of the Cone Health board of trustees, said the North Carolina system’s leadership weighed the prospect of joining Risant for more than a year.
“Through this agreement, we will continue to improve upon our long tradition of providing health and well-being to those we serve,” Douglas said in a statement.
Cone’s flagship hospital, Moses H. Cone Memorial Hospital in Greensboro is a teaching hospital with 628 beds. Alamance Regional Medical Center in Burlington has 238 beds, Wesley Long Hospital has 175 beds, and Annie Penn Hospital offers 110 acute care beds.
Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, a division of Kaiser Permanente, is designating up to $5 billion “to support core Risant Health capabilities, technologies, tools, and future investments,” according to financial documents filed last year.
Geisinger, which operates 10 hospital campuses and 134 healthcare sites, has kept its identity since being acquired by Risant Health.
Ryu served as president and CEO of Geisinger Health for five years before becoming the first CEO of Risant Health. Geisinger named Terry Gilliland, MD, as its new president and CEO.
OMAHA, Neb. — The championship series is set. And without a doubt, the two hottest teams, North Carolina and Oklahoma, are paired to play for a national title at the College World Series.
There was no backing into the finals for these squads, one that looked like a contender all season and one that did not until two weeks ago.
North Carolina (53-12-1) and Oklahoma (41-22) swept through opposite brackets at Charles Schwab Field. UNC punctuated its three-game run with a 12-7 victory Wednesday against West Virginia. OU followed by defeating Georgia, the regular-season and postseason SEC champ, 11-4.
Iconic brands in college sports, the Tar Heels and Sooners will meet Saturday at 8 p.m. ET in the opening game of a best-of-three series.
North Carolina seeks its first national championship in baseball. It lost in the finals in 2006 and 2007. Oklahoma has won two crowns, most recently in 1994, and it lost in the finals in 2022.
LET’S PLAY FOR A NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP 🗣️ pic.twitter.com/588pVssfOR
— Oklahoma Baseball (@OU_Baseball) June 18, 2026
“It really hasn’t set in yet,” said UNC second baseman Gavin Gallaher, who was 4 for 5 on Wednesday with four RBIs. “After the game, we shook hands, and I was just kind of walking around, looking up in the stands, looking at my family, just kind of speechless, to be honest.”
The Tar Heels were seeded fifth in the 64-team field announced on Memorial Day. In Omaha, they have not trailed by more than one run — and for just three innings. North Carolina’s pitching staff, on maximum rest during its stay in Omaha, is set up well for the weekend.
Junior ace starter Jason DeCaro, who worked 6 2/3 innings Friday, enters the championship series in position to start the opener. Star freshman Caden Glauber, who was needed for 2 1/3 innings Wednesday afternoon as WVU mounted a comeback, has thrown only 54 pitches in the CWS. The Tar Heels are 28-0 this year when Glauber appears in a game. He’s won 11 decisions without a loss.
Sixth-year coach Scott Forbes took over in 2021 for Mike Fox, who brought North Carolina to the CWS seven times. Bids for a first national title fell short in 2006 and 2007 against Oregon State in the championship series.
Forbes joined Fox’s staff before that 2006 season as a 31-year-old pitching coach.
“I’m trying not to get emotional,” Forbes said, “just thinking about that team and Coach Fox giving me the opportunity. I wasn’t the popular hire at the time. There were a lot bigger names. I had never been a pitching coach. But Coach Fox saw something in me and gave me that opportunity.”
Oklahoma returns to the championship series for the second time in five years. It lost to Ole Miss in 2022. The Rebels that year were the first team to win a championship with a losing record in conference play.
OU is attempting to become the second.
Coach Skip Johnson’s team finished 14-16 in the SEC and lost four consecutive league series to close the regular season. But the Sooners clawed back in Regional play, winning two elimination games at Georgia Tech, the No. 2 overall seed.
OU swept Kansas in a Super Regional and beat SEC foes Alabama and Georgia before it won the rematch Wednesday night against the Bulldogs.
The Sooners remade their pitching rotation in the postseason to ride three true freshmen: left-hander Cord Rager, a season-long starter, Xander Mercurius and Nick Wesloski. The latter duo had combined to start four games this season before they both beat the Bulldogs, who came to Omaha with the most powerful lineup in college baseball.
Wesloski fired 5 2/3 innings Wednesday and struck out four, one off his career high.
Rager and Mercurius have inspired Wesloski, he said.
“Seeing the way they dominated and they carry themselves,” he said, “those guys are just elite. Watching them go about their process has made me a better pitcher. Those guys look unstoppable, unbeatable. It’s added to my confidence level. They influence me a ton.”
OU got hot at the plate, too. In eliminating Georgia, it homered five times, including two apiece by Jason Walk and Dasan Harris. Before Wednesday, Walk had hit four bombs in 200 at-bats; Harris had four in 137 at-bats.
Twenty-five of Oklahoma’s 90 home runs this year have come in 10 postseason games.
It pays to get hot at the right time.
“You’re looking at a baseball team, a selfless baseball team that’s really fun to be around,” said Johnson, the ninth-year OU coach. “Hopefully, I can just stay out of the way the next two or three games.”
RALEIGH, NC — For years, WRAL Investigates tracked problems with North Carolina’s unemployment benefits system.
Now, two new follow-up audits show the same problems still persist inside the Division of Employment Security (DES) when it comes to paying the correct amount of unemployment and paying those first-time benefits on time.
The first audit deals with improper payments. The category includes fraud, overpayments and underpayments.
From 2021-2025, the auditor found the improper payment rate for unemployment benefits in North Carolina was 22%, most of which were overpayments. That’s more than double the national standard of 10% error rate.
According to the North Carolina Office of the State Auditor (OSA), those payment errors cost taxpayers more than $90 million over the expected 10% error rate.
In fact, the improper payment rate got worse compared to an initial audit’s findings back in 2022, when OSA found errors in 18% of payments.
The second follow-up audit out today dealt with timeliness of benefits, meaning when people finally got paid after filing and qualifying for unemployment.
In 2024- 2025, 28% of first-time unemployment checks were not cut within the 14-day federal standard. While not great, it’s an improvement compared to previous audit findings of 40% late checks in 2022 and 43% of late checks in 2024.
In fact, the auditor’s office noted on-time payments in below the national standard in just 3 of the past 20 years.
The Division of Unemployment Security agreed with the findings and recommendations to improve North Carolina’s unemployment system.
As visitors enjoy North Carolina’s outdoors this summer, members of the North Carolina State Parks and Recreation fire team are helping fight a wildfire in the eastern part of the state.
The agency said its Natural Resource Section’s Fire Management Team is assisting the N.C. Forest Service and the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission with the Rose Bay Canal Wildfire.
Officials said the agencies work closely together during fire season to help contain wildfires and protect communities, natural resources and public lands.
According to North Carolina State Parks and Recreation, nearly 5,000 wildfires have started across the state since the beginning of 2026.
Fire danger is expected to remain high as summer continues.
State parks officials are reminding people to be fire-wise when heading outdoors.
People should follow local burn restrictions and never leave a fire unattended.
Officials said all fires should be completely extinguished before people leave the area.
Fires are only allowed in designated areas, such as grills and fire rings, at state parks.
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