The North Carolina Supreme Court could soon settle a certificate-of-need dispute between two healthcare providers seeking to install a fixed MRI system in Wake County, NC, The Carolina Journal reported.
Duke Health and Pinnacle Health Services have been competing for the certificate of need, which was awarded to Duke in 2021. Pinnacle challenged that decision and made some headway in the state Court of Appeals, according to a September 17 report in The Carolina Journal. The Supreme Court of North Carolina held a hearing on the matter the same day.
“Here, an executive agency told Pinnacle that it could not install a fixed MRI scanner in Wake Forest, even though that geographic area is currently served by zero such scanners and even though Pinnacle demonstrated that it could provide the service at lower cost than other providers,” The Carolina Journal noted. “The agency instead let Duke add a fixed MRI scanner to its facility in the heart of Raleigh, where Duke and other providers already have a bevy of scanners available for the public.”
