UNC Health sought ‘partnership’ with WakeMed after Atrium merger announced
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- UNC Health expressed interest in a partnership after Atrium merger was announced.
- WakeMed affirms it will proceed with its planned combination with Atrium Health.
- WakeMed needs Wake County approval and federal and state antitrust reviews.
A few days after WakeMed announced its plan to merge with Charlotte-based Atrium Health, UNC Health made a counterproposal to WakeMed.
Neither side is disclosing details, though both use the word “partnership” to describe UNC’s proposal. Regardless, WakeMed says it will move ahead with its combination with Atrium.
“We have reviewed UNC Health’s proposal,” WakeMed said in a written statement. “And we will continue engaging with the community regarding our path forward. At this time, however, that path lies with Atrium Health.”
News of the proposal was first reported Thursday in The Assembly. In a statement, UNC Health acknowledged that it had “expressed interest in exploring a broader partnership with WakeMed,” and highlighted the UNC School of Medicine’s role in educating and training “roughly 30% of WakeMed’s medical staff.”
“We have been assured that this medical training partnership is important to WakeMed,” the statement said. “It is because of this success that we believe that even greater things can be accomplished together for our citizens. That’s precisely why we have expressed interest in furthering our relationship with WakeMed.”
WakeMed says the unsolicited partnership offer from UNC Health arrived on May 5, the day WakeMed and Atrium leaders held a press conference in Raleigh to explain the planned combination of the two nonprofit health systems. They had announced the merger in a press release on May 1.
While WakeMed is financially sound now, president and CEO Donald Gintzig said, it needs to join a larger company to grow and update its hospitals and other facilities in coming years. Atrium Health and its parent company, Advocate Health, have pledged to invest $2 billion in WakeMed, allowing it to update its main campus in Raleigh and expand hospitals in Cary and North Raleigh.
Gintzig said WakeMed spent about two years on a “diligent and deliberate process” of reviewing the merger with Atrium. He said WakeMed hired consultants from national organizations to analyze possible partners both within and outside North Carolina.
Merger still faces some hurdles
Critics, including State Treasurer Brad Briner, say the consolidation of WakeMed with Atrium will reduce competition in ways that increase costs for patients and reduce quality.
In its statement Thursday, WakeMed noted that joining Chapel Hill-based UNC Health would reduce the number of health systems serving Wake County from three to two, including Durham-based Duke Health.
“Combined, WakeMed and UNC Health would control 80 percent of the healthcare market in Wake County,” the statement said. “We have heard from numerous stakeholders, including the State Treasurer, that maintaining robust competition is important for our rapidly growing region.”
The WakeMed-Atrium merger still faces several hurdles. WakeMed needs Wake County commissioners to approve changes to the documents that allowed the county-owned Wake Medical Center to become a private nonprofit in 1997. After that, the Federal Trade Commission, along with the N.C. attorney general’s office, must agree the merger doesn’t violate state and federal antitrust laws that protect consumers from unfair business practices.
This story was originally published May 21, 2026 at 5:47 PM.
