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Wake County community members gathered Monday night hoping to learn more about WakeMed’s proposed partnership with Atrium Health, but many left with the same question they came with: What exactly is the deal?
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Patients, healthcare workers and longtime WakeMed supporters filled Saint Ambrose Episcopal Church, repeatedly calling for more transparency about the agreement and raising questions about how the partnership could affect healthcare costs and patient care in Wake County.
The forum, hosted by The Patients Union — a health care advocacy group — was meant to give patients and community members a chance to ask questions they felt had gone unanswered during previous WakeMed-hosted forums.
The group attended those forums but felt patients and community members most impacted by the proposal were not adequately represented, said Rob Stephens, organizing director for The Patients Union.
Stephens called the proposed partnership “the most consequential decision” Wake County commissioners will make in years and said residents deserved more information before a vote.
“If it’s such a good deal, why is it done in the dark and why can’t we see it?” Stephens said.
One of the biggest concerns throughout the night was the lack of public access to the agreement.
WakeMed CEO Donald Gintzig told attendees the agreement is a “private document” that contains “competitive information” and could not be publicly released. He said WakeMed had shared the documents with county commissioners and their legal counsel.
Monday was the first time some commissioners had access to the documents. Commissioners are not voting on the agreement between WakeMed and Atrium itself, but whether to amend WakeMed’s transfer agreement with Wake County to allow Atrium to take control of hospital assets, including the main campus, said Commissioner Vickie Adamson.
Adamson said at the forum that only three commissioners — Don Mial, Safiyah Jackson and Cheryl Stallings — were allowed to review and discuss the documents with lawyers that morning, while the other four commissioners were not.
She said she emailed Mial asking to review the documents, requesting the same access that had been given to the three commissioners. Adamson described Mial’s response as “hostile” and her request was denied. The News & Observer reached out to Mial for comment but has not yet received a response.
Commissioners previously delayed action on May 4 after concerns were raised about the speed of the decision and the need for more public discussion. Adamson clarified to The N&O that the motion called for a delay of “at least 90 days,” not a 90-day deadline, meaning commissioners are not required to vote by a specific date.
Audience members also questioned whether the partnership could lead to higher healthcare costs.
Research has shown cross-market hospital mergers, like the proposed WakeMed and Atrium partnership, can raise prices by 6% to 17%, according to Nathan Foster, a health policy specialist with the North Carolina Justice Center.
Foster also pointed to data showing the State Employees Health Plan pays Atrium 15% to 40% more than WakeMed for the same services and warned those higher costs could eventually reach patients through higher premiums and healthcare expenses.
Since news of the deal broke, state and local officials have raised similar concerns, including State Treasurer Brad Briner.
In a May letter to county commissioners and previous discussions with The News & Observer, Briner warned that hospital mergers have historically led to higher costs and lower quality of care and said combining Atrium and WakeMed could give the systems more market power to negotiate higher prices.
WakeMed leaders have pushed back on those concerns, saying the partnership with Atrium and its parent organization, Advocate Health, would bring a $2 billion investment in Wake County healthcare facilities and create 3,300 healthcare jobs over the next five years, The News & Observer previously reported.
During community forums in May, Gintzig described WakeMed as “financially sound” and said joining a larger system was about having the resources to grow and expand services in the future.
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Throughout the forum, community members repeatedly said the proposed partnership felt personal and explained why.
The Rev. Hershey Mallette Stephens said WakeMed saved her life after she developed postpartum preeclampsia, a serious pregnancy-related high blood pressure condition, following the birth of her first son.
She said WakeMed providers gave her support during her recovery and the chance to raise her children.
“WakeMed saw me. WakeMed treated me. WakeMed saved my life,” Mallette Stephens said.
That experience is why she opposes the partnership, arguing WakeMed is not “a failing hospital looking to be rescued.”
Others shared similar stories after they were asked to write down on index cards what makes WakeMed worth fighting for and what questions or concerns they had about the proposed partnership.
Those few sentences turned into emotional testimonies. One woman described spending weeks at WakeMed during a difficult family loss and relying on the hospital’s financial assistance, while another shared how nurses helped her uncle manage his care and lower the cost of his medications after he suffered a heart attack.
Attendees’ questions centered on several themes, including:
WakeMed healthcare workers dressed in red and hospital officials filled nearly half the church’s seating area, including Gintzig, who took the microphone after attendees finished sharing their concerns.
Gintzig’s response to questions about transparency and the agreement’s details drew heated pushback from the crowd as he tried to explain why the documents could not be publicly released and said they had been reviewed by commissioners and lawyers.
Stephens stepped in several times to calm the crowd during Gintzig’s attempts to answer questions.
“Even though we haven’t always been listened to, we are going to listen,” he said.
Gintzig said the partnership was about WakeMed’s long-term future, pointing to plans to rebuild its Southeast Raleigh hospital, expand emergency and cancer care, add more beds and recruit more staff as the region grows.
He also pushed back on concerns that WakeMed would lose control under the agreement, saying the hospital would continue negotiating its own rates.
“WakeMed stays WakeMed,” Gintzig said.
Adamson told The N&O that while WakeMed’s local board would remain in place, the proposed structure would change how much authority that board has.
Currently, county commissioners appoint members of WakeMed’s board. Under the proposed structure, Atrium would become the “single member” of the overall board and could approve or reject certain decisions made by the local board, including whether to open or close facilities or services, Adamson said.
She added that she does not anticipate commissioners will hold an emergency meeting to vote on the proposal. If no such meeting is called, the earliest commissioners could consider the agreement would be at their next regularly scheduled meeting on Aug. 17, though Adamson said the agenda has not yet been finalized.
This story was originally published July 28, 2026 at 3:29 PM.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story included an incorrect description of the ownership of WakeMed. WakeMed has been independent of Wake County since 1997. Commissioners must approve a change in the transfer agreement for the partnership with Atrium to proceed.
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