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Setting its sights on national growth, Charlotte-based health care giant Atrium Health announced major plans on Wednesday to double its size through a deal with a Midwestern hospital system. This is Atrium Health’s largest business deal to date — a strategic combination with Illinois and Wisconsin-based hospital system Advocate Aurora Health. The move will result in the fifth largest health system in the country, Atrium CEO Gene Woods told The Charlotte Observer in an interview Tuesday ahead of the announcement. (Smoot, 5/11)

The new nonprofit organization would have 67 hospitals and more than 1,000 sites of care across Illinois, Wisconsin, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama. Advocate Aurora now has 27 hospitals in Illinois and Wisconsin, after years of trying to grow through mergers and attempted mergers. ... Advocate Aurora and Atrium plan to form a joint operating company to be called Advocate Health, though Atrium’s hospitals would keep the Atrium name, Advocate’s Wisconsin hospitals would keep the Aurora name, and its Illinois hospitals would still be called Advocate. As part of the union, no money would change hands, and existing assets would remain in the states where they are now. (Schencker, 5/11)

Hospital labor costs have soared by more than a third during the pandemic, a new report shows, the latest evidence of the pressures it has exacted on health-care providers. Labor costs rose 37 percent per patient between 2019 and March 2022, according to health-care consultancy firm Kaufman Hall, which called the first quarter of this year “a perfect storm of expense, volume, and revenue pressures.” The costs are weighing on even some of the largest chains, with HCA Healthcare and Universal Health Services recently warning that higher wages will continue to eat into profits. But while the biggest chains are still profitable, Kaufman Hall previously forecast that more than one third of US hospitals would lose money last year. (Coleman-Lochner, 5/11)

In the proposed state spending plan that Gov. Roy Cooper released on Wednesday, he not only makes another push for Medicaid expansion but also recommends making a $45 million investment into North Carolina’s health care workforce. Cooper put forward a $29.3 billion budget, nearly $2.3 billion more than initially planned for in the fiscal year that begins July 1. The Fiscal Research Division of the North Carolina General Assembly revised its Revenue Consensus Forecast upward earlier this week to show that collections over the past year totaled $4.2 billion more than predicted. (Blythe, 5/12)

More than four in 10 hospitals have seen staffing shortages limit their ability to discharge patients because of a lack of post-acute care, according to a survey provided exclusively to Axios by CarePort Health, a care coordination software company. Health care staffing shortages in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic have been felt across the industry and are noticed by patients. Among the hardest hit are the facilities that fall on the spectrum of post-acute care. (Reed, 5/11)

The CEOs of America’s seven largest publicly traded health insurance and services companies cumulatively earned more than $283 million in 2021 — by far the most of any year in the past decade. Soaring stock prices overwhelmingly fueled executives’ fortunes, according to a STAT analysis of annual proxy disclosures from UnitedHealth Group, CVS Health, Anthem, Cigna, Humana, Centene, and Molina Healthcare dating back to 2012. (Herman, 5/12)

Tampa is partnering with Tampa General Hospital on a multi-year preventative wellness initiative aimed at improving the overall health of residents. According to a press release, the Tampa General Hospital Foundation is contributing $1 million to help launch TampaWell in its first year. "More than ever before, we have a great opportunity to create a unique and holistic wellness ecosystem that not only improves the health of our residents and the health of our economy, but also differentiates Tampa as the most attractive wellness destination nationwide," TGH president and CEO John Couris said in the release. "TampaWell will be the first of its kind in the nation — a wellness revolution and community movement that will improve the community's health and resilience." (Lisciandrello, 5/11)

A hospital in Louisiana’s largest system is giving Louisiana State University at Eunice $698,000 to expand allied health programs. Ochsner Lafayette General says it wants to boost the nursing and surgical technology programs at the college, news agencies report. (5/11)

An Idaho hospital that went on lockdown in March after far-right activists protested outside is suing Ammon Bundy, Diego Rodriguez and their various political organizations for defamation and “sustained online attacks.” St. Luke’s Health System filed the lawsuit Wednesday against Bundy, his gubernatorial campaign, and his People’s Rights Network organization. The hospital system is also suing Diego Rodriguez — the grandfather of the child involved in the protection case — as well as Rodriguez’s website Freedom Man Press and the Freedom Man political action committee. Rodriguez is an associate of Bundy’s who has been active in Bundy’s political campaign. (Boone, 5/12)