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Legislation Proposed To Help Establish Teaching Hospitals In Rural NC Counties

Medical staff prepare for surgery in this AP file photo. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

North Carolina lawmakers have introduced legislation that aims to establish more teaching hospitals in rural areas. 

The legislation directs the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services to make recommendations establishing incentives to expand medical education in the state's rural counties.

Lawmakers would also like DHHS to identify medical centers that are ideal candidates to become teaching hospitals.

According to The Winston-Salem Journal, the incentives would include loosening Medicare restrictions on which hospitals can provide medical teaching. The bill would also seek enticements for medical residents and students to remain in those rural areas after they graduate.

The legislation is being submitted at a time when rural hospitals are struggling financially with reduced Medicare reimbursements.

North Carolina currently has four main teaching hospitals, all located in urban centers.

Neal Charnoff joined 88.5 WFDD as Morning Edition host in 2014. Raised in the Catskill region of upstate New York, he graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1983. Armed with a liberal arts degree, Neal was fully equipped to be a waiter. So he prolonged his arrested development bouncing around New York and L.A. until discovering that people enjoyed listening to his voice on the radio. After a few years doing overnight shifts at a local rock station, Neal spent most of his career at Vermont Public Radio. He began as host of a nightly jazz program, where he was proud to interview many of his idols, including Dave Brubeck and Sonny Rollins. Neal graduated to the news department, where he was the local host for NPR's All Things Considered for 14 years. In addition to news interviews and features, he originated and produced the Weekly Conversation On The Arts, as well as VPR Backstage, which profiled theater productions around the state. He contributed several stories to NPR, including coverage of a devastating ice storm. Neal now sees the value of that liberal arts degree, and approaches life with the knowledge that all subjects and all art forms are connected to each other. Neal and his wife Judy are enjoying exploring North Carolina and points south. They would both be happy to never experience a Vermont winter again.

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