WakeMed moves to merge with Charlotte-based Atrium Health system
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- WakeMed is taking steps to merge with Charlotte-based Atrium Health.
- Wake County commissioners will be asked on Monday to approve the merger.
- State Treasurer Brad Briner said consolidation can hurt consumers and urged scrutiny.
WakeMed, one of the Triangle’s three big health care systems, is taking steps to merge with Charlotte-based Atrium Health.
Wake County commissioners will be asked to bless the merger on Monday. Until 1997, WakeMed was owned by the county before it became an independent nonprofit.
Atrium Health is part of Advocate Health, the nation’s third-largest nonprofit academic health system centered around Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem.
Joining with Atrium will help WakeMed continue a mission that began 65 years ago, said Donald Gintzig, president and CEO.
“This combination represents a significant next step in building upon this legacy, expanding our impact and ensuring a thriving nonprofit health care future for all we serve,” Gintzig said in a statement Friday. “WakeMed and Atrium Health are united in a shared commitment to serving our communities, and by building upon our complementary strengths, we can have an even greater impact on the health and well-being of Wake County and the entire state.”
The tie-up of two of the state’s largest health care systems will face some opposition. State Treasurer Brad Briner released a statement Friday raising his concerns.
“There is a simple business principle that when suppliers consolidate and competition is reduced it is the consumers who suffer,” Briner said. “This has been proven to be true time and again in the health care landscape, where prices continue to rise and patients are left with mounting medical debt.”
Briner said he hoped the state attorney general and Federal Trade Commission scrutinize the proposed merger.
“If history is any guide, this merger will not benefit the public,” he said.
WakeMed said regulators would review the proposed merger over the coming months before any integration takes place. WakeMed and Atrium officials will hold a press conference Tuesday morning “to share information, answer questions, and address any misconceptions.”
WakeMed touts potential benefits of merger
In announcing the merger on Friday, WakeMed said it would result in a $2 billion investment in the health system, including redevelopment and expansion of its flagship Raleigh Campus and WakeMed hospitals in Cary and North Raleigh.
WakeMed said the expansions would create 3,300 new health care jobs in Wake County over the next five years.
The combination would give WakeMed the kind of close relationship with a medical school that competitors UNC Health in Chapel Hill and Duke Health in Durham have. It will create new residency and fellowship opportunities at WakeMed and bring more cutting-edge treatments, WakeMed said.
This is the second time that Atrium Health has tried to merge with a Triangle-based health system. In 2017, UNC Health said it would partner with what was then known as Carolinas HealthCare to create one of the largest nonprofit health care networks and academic research centers in the country.
UNC Health and Carolinas HealthCare said they would form a company to oversee their joint operations under a new corporate name with a headquarters at a location to be determined.
The deal fell apart several months later, over disagreements about who would control the joint operating company.
This story was originally published May 1, 2026 at 3:49 PM.
