This fall, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Adams School of Dentistry (UNC ASOD) launched the UNC Program for Oral Health Policy. The program was developed in response to longstanding gaps in access, prevention, and workforce distribution in North Carolina, and reflects UNC ASOD’s ACT curriculum (Advocate, Clinician, Thinker), which emphasizes the importance of preparing clinicians who understand how health systems operate and how policy influences patient care. The program incorporates policy analysis, community-based learning, and systems-focused training to provide learners with a clearer understanding of the conditions influencing oral health delivery across the state.

In this episode of the WNC Health Policy podcast, epidemiologist Dr. Patrick Baron, Assistant Professor and Program Director of the Integrated Health Sciences at Western Carolina University, helps us understand the big picture around food access and population health in WNC, and where things stand after multiple hits to food infrastructure, including: the end of emergency allotments for COVID-19 in the Food and Nutrition Services (FNS) program in 2023, Hurricane Helene in September 2024, cuts to the USDA in spring of 2025 and the passage of The One Big Bill Act of July 2025.

Thanks to predicted funding cuts in NC’s Medicaid rebase, NC DHHS implemented a series of sweeping cuts to adjust for the shortfall. Under the announced plan, nearly all Medicaid providers will face rate reductions of 3 percent to 8 percent, while some categories — including nursing homes, hospitals, psychiatric residential treatment facilities and certain ambulatory services — will see steeper cuts of up to 10 percent. 

The reductions will affect services across the board, from personal care and home health to outpatient therapy and hospital care.

On September 15, 2025, CMS released a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for the Rural Health Transformation Program outlining key requirements, deadlines, and criteria that states will need to apply for this funding, which is intended to support improvements to rural healthcare systems as well as health outcomes in rural areas. In this article, we share key takeaways from this announcement.

North Carolina ranks 39th in the nation for access to mental health care. Four million state residents — two in every five North Carolinians — live in an area with a mental health professional shortage and the situation is worse in rural counties, which have only 0.58 psychiatrists to every 10,000 people, compared to 1.79 per 10,000 in urban ones. 

While the APA indicates that telehealth can be especially effective for depression, ADHD, and PTSD, not all mental health conditions are equally suited for telehealth.  However, with such a severe mental health provider shortage in the region, doctors and patients — especially those in rural Western North Carolina — have to rely on telehealth, provided they have sufficient internet access. (Reprinted with permission from Carolina Public Press)