NC DHHS

Two more North Carolina parents are suing the food distributor WanaBana, saying their children suffered lead poisoning from the company's fruit puree products.

North Carolina tightly regulates health services and caps the number of licensed acute care beds in a county or service area. N.C. Department of Health and Human Services regulates health services through the Division of Health Service Regulation.

The General Assembly was expected to pass a state budget by July 1. Now, it could be weeks until a budget is approved and state health officials can start rolling out Medicaid expansion.

But the expansion program won't happen then unless elected officials take one last action soon. The Democratic governor signed an expansion law in March, pontentially providing health coverage to another 600,000 adults.

Kinsley said beneficiaries could continue to lose their coverage until Medicaid expansion can take effect.

The effort comes as North Carolina faces an impending shortage of nurses over the next decade.

The White House has selected a former North Carolina health official to be the new director of the nation's top federal public health agency. Dr. Mandy Cohen has been picked to head the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Two new hospitals in Wake County, including a new behavioral health hospital, received regulatory approval. When the dust settles on any appeals, it would mean one of the fastest expansions of new hospitals in the county's history.

Superior Court Judge Allen Baddour signed the legal stay dated Thursday. In November, Baddour had set thresholds that the state would have to meet regularly over the next decade.

Disability Rights North Carolina and the North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP have joined forces to help children of color with disabilities in the state's foster care program get more community- and home-based treatment instead of being "warehoused" in locked psychiatric facilities that can be dangerous.