NCACC Weekly Update — March 3, 2023 | Eastern North Carolina Now

News Release:

    Notable Activity

    House and Senate leaders announced on Thursday morning that an agreement had been reached to expand Medicaid in the state. The decision would allow roughly 600,000 people in North Carolina to gain health insurance. This is a major development nearly 14 years in the making and accomplishes one of NCACC's major legislative goals this biennium. Legislative leaders mentioned several details about the bill at their press conference, which will include changes to the state's certificate of need (CON) laws but clarified that the bill is still being drafted. NCACC anticipates the language to appear as an amendment to House Bill 76 Access to Healthcare, which has already passed the House. Those announced changes include:

• Elimination of certificate of need for behavioral health beds and for chemical dependency beds.
• Raising the replacement equipment threshold to $3 million and indexing that number to inflation.
• Increasing the threshold for diagnostic centers to $3 million and indexing that number to inflation.
• Eliminating a certificate of need for MRIs in counties with a population of 125,000 or more.
• Eliminating a certificate of need for ambulatory surgical centers in counties with a population above 125,000.

    Passage and adoption of this Medicaid expansion bill will be tied to passage and adoption of the 2023 State Budget - meaning should Governor Cooper veto the state budget, the state would fail to expand Medicaid.

    In other news, House Bill 122 Reimburse Late Audits with Sales Tax Rev., which would allow the Local Government Commission to withhold local sales tax revenue, up to 150% of the cost of an audit, should local governments fail to submit their annual audit reports on time, passed its first committee hurdle in House Local Government Committee earlier this week. The bill has the backing of the State Treasurer, the State Auditor, and the North Carolina Association of CPAs. NCACC remains opposed to the bill and looks forward to working with the bill sponsor and stakeholders to find solutions to assist counties who have challenges in this area.


   Contact: NCACC
   Email: communications@ncacc.org