Press Releases

Since arriving on site on Nov. 27, DHHS staff discovered documents that raise serious concerns about proposed financial activities by former board leadership and former CEO. Based on this information, DHHS filed and was granted a temporary restraining order in Mecklenburg County to ensure that former board members and the former CEO have no access to Cardinal's funds. DHHS has taken a variety of administrative actions related to the financial management of the organization; in addition to those activities we are pursuing this litigation out of an abundance of caution in the protection of taxpayer dollars.

The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services is accepting applications for the state's Low-Income Energy Assistance Program beginning Friday.

Effective immediately, the N.C Department of Health and Human Services has temporarily assumed leadership of Cardinal Innovations, an LME-MCO authorized under state law to provide essential behavioral services using public funds.

The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services is notifying the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights and affected individuals of a recent incident in which a spreadsheet containing personal information was sent in error to a vendor in an unencrypted email.

DHHS has released two documents related to our investigation of Cardinal Innovations. First, as required by state law, DHHS Office of Internal Audit has conducted a six-month Follow-Up Assessment based on the Office of State Audit report that was released in May 2017. Second, DHHS Office of Internal Audit has provided an additional interim report to DHHS leadership associated with a site visit it conducted at Cardinal Innovations on October 30.

The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services today submitted to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services an amendment to the 1115 Demonstration Waiver application originally submitted by North Carolina in 2016. Submitting this amended waiver application is an important next step in implementing the Proposed Program Design for Medicaid Managed Care that DHHS published in August.

DHHS today released “Behavioral Health and Intellectual/Developmental Disability Tailored Plan,' the first in a series of Medicaid managed care program concept papers. These concept papers, which DHHS will continue to release over the next several months, provide details on certain components of the managed care program design. DHHS invites stakeholders to provide input by sending an email to Medicaid.Transformation@dhhs.nc.gov. Visit the DHHS Medicaid Transformation website at ncdhhs.gov/nc-medicaid-transformation for more on the North Carolina Medicaid transition to managed care.

The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services today announced the state's first flu-related deaths of the 2017-18 season after two adults died of complications from influenza infection from mid-to-late October. One of the deaths occurred in the Piedmont region of North Carolina, and the other occurred in the eastern region of the state.

The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services today asked health care providers, health plans and other stakeholders to provide information that will help the department transform the state Medicaid and NC Health Choice programs to managed care, as directed by the General Assembly in 2015.

N.C. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Mandy Cohen, M.D., got her flu shot Thursday and encouraged others to get vaccinated, too, with the flu season underway.