Atrium CEO says recent merger has led to increase in quality | WFAE 90.7

Atrium Health is on track to break revenue records, with $9.3 billion in operating revenue for the first nine months of the year. That matches the total for all of last year. The Charlotte Ledger Business Newsletter wrote about Atrium this week, and the Ledger’s Cristina Bolling joins me now for our segment BizWorthy.

Marshall Terry: OK. So when giving an update on Atrium’s finances this week, CEO Gene Woods pointed to the recent merger with hospitals in Illinois and Wisconsin. Remind us, if you will, about the details of that merger, and then just what did Woods have to say about it this week?

Cristina Bolling: So in 2022, Atrium combined with a company called Advocate Aurora Health, and it created one of the biggest nonprofit hospital systems in the country. This new combined health care system has more than 1,000 care sites — so doctor’s offices and other medical facilities. And it has 67 hospitals. So this week, Gene Woods spoke at a Charlotte-Mecklenburg Hospital Authority meeting, and he said that combining these two hospital systems has resulted in more than $662 million in savings. He gave the example of a consolidated contract for medical gloves and how the systems had seven different glove contracts before, but when Atrium Aurora put them together, they saved $10 million, he said.

Terry: So, Woods is saying this financial update is proof that these sorts of mergers lead to lower costs and better health care quality — despite research showing the opposite. Is he right?

Bolling: Well, there’s a lot of debate about this. So, certainly there are efficiencies. But the question is, do these savings get passed on to patients? The research shows that in many cases, prices go up. And, there’s also some research that shows that quality can decline. Note that Gene Woods did not say prices have dropped. He said patient care will improve. Research is pretty clear that prices generally go up as systems merge and they consolidate — because the larger the health care system, the fewer options patients have. And so, in sometimes, they wind up paying higher prices.

Terry: All right. Over to Bank of America Stadium now, where there’s been a shake-up at Tepper Sports and Entertainment. Is David Tepper stepping down — as most Panthers fans, I think would like?

Bolling: No, there was no discussion about David Tepper’s job this week. The organization did announce some big leadership changes, but his name was not among those. Tepper Sports and Entertainment announced that the Panther’s president, Kristi Coleman, is going to be the new Tepper Sports and Entertainment CEO. So that means that she’s going to oversee business operations for the Panthers’ Bank of America Stadium and Charlotte FC. You know, she was the first woman to hold the position as Panthers president when she took that job in February 2022.

The other big news announced this week was that Charlotte FC president Joe LaBue will now transition into what they’re calling a consultant role with Tepper Sports.

Terry: OK. Let’s end this week at SouthPark Mall, where the American Girl’s store is closing after a decade. Can dolls just not compete with iPhones and TikTok?

Bolling: You know, this one shocked me this week, to be honest. I have two girls and have spent plenty of time in that store myself. It’s a pretty interesting place where you can have a birthday party with your dolls. You can get their hair done, you can get their ears pierced. You can see historic dolls and the dolls of the year. It’s been open at SouthPark for 10 years. So it makes you kind of wonder if maybe the lease was up? American Girl has been closing stores in recent years. I think about six or seven have closed since 2020, so it definitely seems like the numbers are scaling down nationally. But certainly a lot of Charlotte kids and parents are going to be sad to see this one go.

Terry: And, quickly, does it say anything at all about malls in general?

Bolling: You know, I’m not sure. I think traffic and sales have been pretty good, I think at SouthPark. So, I’m not sure what it has to say about malls in general — or what it has to say about the doll market, and whether or not kids want to keep playing with dolls now that there’s so many, you know, new options in terms of technology and other kinds of toys that kids like to play with.

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