Senator calls budget penalty against Greenville hospital 'attack on eastern NC'

The $23.9 billion spending plan received preliminary approval from the Senate and is expected to win final passage on Friday. But it's unclear if the Vidant language will remain in the final budget negotiated in the coming weeks by the House and the Senate.

Vidant has been fighting with the University of North Carolina system in recent weeks over appointments to the board that oversees Vidant Medical Center, the system's flagship hospital in Greenville and the longtime teaching hospital for East carolina University's Brody School of Medicine.

The hospital and the UNC system have had an agreement since 1975 that allowed the UNC Board of Governors to appoint nine of the nonprofit hospital's 20 board members, with the rest appointed by the Pitt County Board of Commissioners. In April, the Vidant board voted to give itself the power to appoint the nine seats formerly controlled by the UNC Board of Governors.

Senate budget wades into ECU hospital fight

"I am convinced that, again, eastern North Carolina is under attack," an angry Sen. Don Davis, D-Pitt, said during the budget debate Thursday afternoon. "It's just interesting to me that we keep playing around with these attacks on eastern North Carolina with the budget."

Vidant is a key player in the effort to reduce health care disparities in some of the state's poorest counties, Davis said, and cutting funding will only make that mission harder.

"We're doing everything, it seems, to dismantle health care," he said. "What are we doing? And for what reason?"

Davis put forward an amendment to delete the Vidant language from the budget.

"It's petty politics, petty," he said of the provision. "It's time for us to put this all aside."

But Hise offered a substitute amendment – effectively killing Davis' proposal – to move $1 million from state reserve fund to North Carolina Eastern Area Health Education Center (AHEC).

Sens. Erica Smith, D-Northampton, and Toby Fitch, D-Wilson, questioned how Hise could equate spending $1 million on health care in eastern North Carolina with a $35 million penalty against a major care provider in the region.

"Don't you think something doesn't mathematically equate here?" Fitch asked. "Do you think that's fair?"

"We have had long history in the Senate of supporting the AHECs and the work they do all across the state, including eastern North Carolina, and this just increases that commitment," Hise responded.

Davis said $1 million isn't enough to provide access to quality health care in eastern North Carolina.

"This is a slap in the face to eastern North Carolina," he said.

Hise's amendment passed on party lines, aside from Sen. Rick Horner, R-Johnston, who said he was backing Davis after Davis provided the key vote for the Senate to override Gov. Roy Cooper's veto of an abortion bill last month.