Medicaid Overhaul Chief Says Work On Track To Meet Deadlines
Lawmakers finally agreed last fall on how to overhaul Medicaid. Now the race is on for state health officials to carry out legislators' demands so a new managed-care system can take effect in two or three years.
The operations director of a new state agency tasked with completing the overhaul told lawmakers Tuesday her office is on track to meet key deadlines in the coming months. Dee Jones says the new Division of Health Benefits should grow to 20 employers by June. Private consultants also have been hired.
The General Assembly and Gov. Pat McCrory agreed to replace the current fee-for-service Medicaid system with one in which commercial managed-care companies or local hospital or doctor networks are paid a flat amount for each patient they see.
New Abortion Law Takes Effect
A controversial new abortion law went into effect this month in North Carolina.
It requires that doctors who perform an abortion after the 16th week of pregnancy supply an ultrasound to the state. There's also a longer waiting period. Women seeking an abortion will have to wait 72 hours instead of 24.
Maureen Eggert, an instructor with Wake Forest University School of Law, says the legislation raises a number of privacy issues.
State health officials say the information they collect will be used for statistical purposes and won't be public record.
NAACP Says Voter ID Laws Confusing
The North Carolina NAACP is criticizing the State Board of Elections for not educating voters on the latest election rules.
The group spoke out again Tuesday to get out the word and get out the vote.
Given the changes and legal challenges to the state's election laws over the past few years, it would be easy to get confused about what it takes to vote.
In a press conference in Durham, the North Carolina NAACP's president, Reverend William Barber, said things like voter ID regulations have muddied the waters for the public.
While the state is asking voters to present government ID at the polls, residents can still vote via a provisional ballot if they can provide a birthday and the last four digits of a social security number.
The NAACP has been fighting many of the new laws, including voter ID, in the courts and in public. The trial challenging those overhauls starts January 25th.
Charlotte Officials Say City Faces Human Trafficking Problem
Federal and local officials say Charlotte faces an increasing problem with human trafficking as the population grows and the sports and convention industries increase.
Officials spoke at a conference in Charlotte on the problems of human trafficking. They were training about 40 members of the hotel and motel industry to identify the signs of trafficking.
Police in Charlotte plan to start a task force in March to help identify human traffickers and arrest them.
U.S. Attorney Jill Westmoreland Rose says traffickers bring young women into a community where there is a large sporting event or a convention and have them exploited by those attending the events.
Authorities say those most vulnerable to human traffickers are immigrants and runaways.
Lawyer Wants Bar To Act Against Cooper Over 2000 Election
A Raleigh lawyer says his lawsuit attacking Attorney General Roy Cooper is the final phase of a controversy dating back to his first campaign for the job 15 years ago.
The complaint by Gene Boyce in Wake County Superior Court says the North Carolina State Bar has not investigated Cooper's professional conduct because it's represented by the attorney general's office and has a conflict.
Cooper's spokeswoman referred questions Tuesday to gubernatorial campaign spokesman Jamal Little, who called the dispute a settled issue. Cooper is seeking the Democratic Party nomination to challenge Republican Gov. Pat McCrory in November.
Boyce's son was the Republican candidate for attorney general who lost to Cooper in 2000. The two sides in 2014 settled a long-running lawsuit about a television commercial Cooper aired in that campaign.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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