WNC HPI 2025 Year in Review!
As 2025 draws to a close, we want to celebrate everyone who has worked with us to advance the health and healthcare needs of Western North Carolina. In this report, we’ve compiled a roundup of HPI activities, blog posts, podcasts, events, and other highlights from our work this year, showcasing the collective impact we’ve made together.
Download the pdf to get your copy of the 2025 WNC HPI Year in Review, or read it below. We’re excited to share these with you and look forward to continuing our important work in the year ahead!
WNC HPI Friday Forums
At the heart of our work are the Friday Forums—the place where strategy meets action, ideas evolve into plans, and collaboration sparks innovation. It's here that we take collective ownership of our mission, align our goals, and make critical decisions that drive meaningful change. In short, this is where the WNC HPI magic happens!
In 2025, we held 57 Friday Forums, Work Group Meetings and HPI Leadership Team meetings, featuring over 30 guest experts and facilitators and nearly 100 organizations and coalitions represented by attendees.
Over the course of these sessions, we’ve helped identify needs, inform policy and support regional conversation on topics including:
Policy and economic challenges related to early childhood education access, affordability, sustainability and expansion to meet the need
The healthcare provider landscape in WNC and the impact of provider gaps on healthcare access
Causal pathways between poverty and mental health outcomes
Graduate medical education needs and challenges to support pathways to workforce development
Data resources resulting from the Impact Health/Impact Primary Care Network/Vircho Health integration, and how they can support NC’s Healthy Opportunities Pilot
The impacts of the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” on Medicaid and other health policy, as well as new opportunities, such as the Rural Health Transformation Program
The formation of a new statewide mental health workforce development consortium and program designed to build a robust pathway from high school through social work education into practice and licensure in critical need areas
WNC HPI Blogs and Podcasts
In 2025, the WNC HPI produced 16 blog posts and 11 podcasts, with a few more still in the works. Our thanks to the entire HPI staff, our community partners, and featured experts for their creativity, insights and passion in helping to produce these resources – we couldn't have done it without you. And a special shout-out goes to WNC HPI Audio Producer Andrew Rainey and WNC HPI Writer Jimmy Mullen for their contributions to our blog and podcast series.
In case you missed them, here are a few of our most popular and impactful pieces published on the WNC HPI blog this year:
Featured Podcasts
Healthy Opportunities: Worth the Investment? (Ep. 10)Inside Healthy Opportunities: Voices from the Pilot, Questions for the Budget (Ep. 11)The Healthy Opportunities Pilot, or HOP, is a program that uses Medicaid funding to address some upstream health issues like food access, transportation, housing, and interpersonal violence. By addressing these root issues, the program hopes to both improve health outcomes for North Carolinians, saving them and the state money. In the last budget, money was set aside to support this program. However, despite being approved last December and on the Governor's budget, the North Carolina General Assembly has removed HOP funding for the next two years, and the pilot programs like Impact Health was required to wind down their services (hopefully temporarily) at the end of June 2025. In this series, we looked at this pilot program from a few perspectives to help educate our listeners and policymakers about what's on the table.
Announcing a New WNC HPI Podcast Series Exploring Lessons from The Healthcare Response to Hurricane Helene (Eps. 14, 17, & 18)
In Aug, the WNC HPI launched a multi-part podcast series documenting our research into what we can learn about our region’s healthcare response in the days and weeks following Hurricane Helene’s devastating landfall across Western North Carolina. This research project, which was identified as a priority during the WNC HPI’s post-Helene refocusing efforts, seeks to understand how health system leaders navigated the crisis, including:
What strategies worked?
What barriers got in the way?
And most importantly, what needs to change to create a stronger, more resilient healthcare system in the future?
The research was conducted by Alex Mitchell, Senior Project Manager for the NCCHW's Culture of Results Initiative, and Soni Pitts, Project Manager for the WNC HPI, along with support from Dr. Ameena Batada, Professor of Health Sciences at UNC Asheville
This project is one of 21 Helene-focused research efforts supported by the North Carolina Collaboratory, and is driven by team members from across the North Carolina Center for Health & Wellness (NCCHW) and UNC Asheville’s Health Sciences department, who are working to capture this critical piece of our region’s recent history.
Regionalizing Food Systems for Resilience: A Conversation with Dr. Patrick Baron (Ep. 18)This episode kicks off a new series on food access and health in WNC as we approach the end of 2025. We start with epidemiologist Dr. Patrick Baron, Assistant Professor and Program Director of the Integrated Health Sciences at Western Carolina University, who speaks about the relationship of food access and population health, his 2023 work with MountainWise on rural food access and what lessons from Helene can teach us about resilience and recovery as we brace for federal cuts to SNAP, Medicaid, and the USDA.
Featured Blog Posts
New Study Highlights Role of NC Healthy Opportunities Pilot in Reducing Medicaid Cost and Improving Health OutcomesWe look at a recent study—Medicaid Spending and Health-Related Social Needs in the North Carolina Healthy Opportunities Pilots Program (Seth A. Berkowitz, Jessica Archibald, Zhitong Yu, et al) published in the Journal of the American Medical Association on Feb 27, 2025—that demonstrates that Medicaid beneficiaries enrolled in NC’s Healthy Opportunities Pilot (HOP) showed an overall decrease in Medicaid spending compared to non-HOP enrollees (amounting to an $85 per person/per month reduction in Medicaid spending among HOP participants), as well as other indicators that correlate to improved health outcomes.
What the "One Big Beautiful Bill" Means for Healthcare Access in WNCSupplementing our podcast featuring Pisgah Legal’s Katie Alexander and Ali Houghton, we explore the impact of the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” on healthcare coverage, including the services provided by Pisgah Legal, and how this sweeping legislation could reshape healthcare access across Western North Carolina. Read the blog and check out the podcast for insights into what this bill means for healthcare access in our region, along with other relevant policy information and resources.
Inside the Politics of Health: A Conversation with Dr. Chris CooperBuilding off of our podcast interview with Dr. Chris Cooper (Robert Lee Madison Distinguished Professor and Director of the Haire Institute for Public Policy Western Carolina University at Western Carolina University, and author of Anatomy of a Purple State), we explore the current background and landscape of health policy in North Carolina, as well as review some of the relevant legislation on the NC General Assembly’s docket.
Medicare Advantage at a Crossroads: Incentives, Access, and the Future of CareMedicare Advantage (MA), also known as Part C, has become the dominant path through which older adults receive Medicare coverage, promising convenience and financial protection, including caps on out‑of‑pocket spending and some extra benefits not found in Original Medicare. At the same time, MA contains structural incentives can affect access to timely care, especially for people with complex health needs or limited provider options. In our first blog post by WNC HPI staff writer Jimmy Mullen, we explore the rise, impact and potential future of the Medicare Advantage program.
WNC HPI Events and Engagement
In 2025, the WNC HPI supported 2 events designed to help shape health policy and empower our community.
2025 WNC Legislative Summit: Building a Foundation for the Future - Strategies for a Sustainable Childcare Solution in WNC
Greg Borom (Director, Western North Carolina Early Childhood Coalition) addresses attendees at the WNC HPI’s 2025 WNC Legislative Summit event.
The 2025 WNC Legislative Summit in March engaged policymakers, healthcare professionals, community organizations and child advocacy groups in discussion around policies and strategies to create sustainable long-term investments and solutions in childcare to support a stable, growth-poised workforce and a vibrant regional economy. Panel topics included the healthcare workforce and economic impacts incurred through a lack of accessible and affordable childcare. Check out resources, photos, and panel recordings on the “2025 WNC Legislative Summit” event page.
2025 HRSN Innovations Learning Lab
Marc Malloy (Sevenya, LLC and PCP4ME) and Sen. Ralph Hise (NC General Assembly, 47th District) speak about the shared history of the WNC HPI and Impact Health during the event’s opening session.
On Oct 24th, 2025, the WNC Health Policy Initiative partnered with Impact Health, Vircho Health, and the Impact Primary Care Network to welcome health leadership from across the country to the 2025 HRSN Innovations Learning Lab. The event provided attendees with the opportunity to explore new opportunities and innovations in Health Related Social Needs services and programming through a series of expert presentations and structured workshops. As part of this event, WNC HPI Project Manager, Soni Pitts, and Experts in Residence, Marc Malloy and Sen. Ralph Hise, hosted a workshop titled Synergy in Action: Harnessing Interdisciplinary Teams for Transformative Change, during which participants collaboratively explored barriers, solutions and innovations for engaging in cross-sector engagement and collaboration. We are honored to have been able to join Impact Health in producing this event, and look forward to finding more ways to strengthen and expand our partnership in the years to come. You can learn more about this event at the “2025 HRSN Learning Lab" event page.
Together, these two events not only helped identify and inform health policy needs, challenges and opportunities in WNC, but also provided real-world, implementable strategies and solution to attendees from across our state and the nation looking to improve the health and wellbeing of their communities.
WNC HPI Reports and Publications
Here is quick roundup of the research, reports and publications produced by the WNC HPI in 2025. These and previous publications can be found on our Publications, Reports and Policy Briefs page.
Weathering the Storm: Lessons Learned from the Western North Carolina Healthcare Response to Hurricane Helene (in progress)
This research is a collaborative effort led by the North Carolina Center for Health and Wellness Culture of Results Initiative at UNC Asheville in partnership with The WNC Health Policy Initiative, and was funded by the NC Collaboratory.
Does the Healthcare Workforce Need Stitches? Exploring Policy Approaches in Western North Carolina
Research conducted by Emma Hoosier as part of her 2025 summer internship with WNC HPI. Published in the Fall 2025 edition of Capstone, The UNC Asheville Journal of Undergraduate Scholarship.
WNC & Health Policy Scan of NC General Assembly 2025-2026 Legislation Session
Prepared by Albert Chow (MPH, CHES) for the NC Center for Health and Wellness, this report (presented to the WNC HPI on Nov 14, 2025).
Click to view WNC & Health Policy Scan of NCGA 2025-2026 Legislation Session Spreadsheet
Download PDF of WNC & Health Policy Scan of NCGA 2025-2026 Legislation Session Research Summary
June 2024-July 2025 Impact Report
Our July 2023-June 2024 HPI Impact Report covers highlights some of the successes and progress we made in during the previous fiscal year.
Poster Presentations
Finally, we want to share two posters presented by the WNC HPI team during the past year showcasing our work to external audiences.
Learn about the background, methodology and preliminary findings from our research into the healthcare response to Hurricane Helene. Presented at UNC Asheville’s Celebration of Scholarly and Creative Activity on Feb 14, 2025.
Click to view pdf
Explore insights from the NC Center for Health and Wellness’ and WNC HPI’s experience engaging students in health policy research and advocacy. Presented at the 2025 convention of the NC Society for Public Health Educators on Nov 6, 2025. Click to view pdf
To all of our partners - thank you!
As we close out 2025 and look forward to the New Year, the staff and leadership of the WNC Health Policy Initiative want to extend our heartfelt thanks to all of our partners and participants for your unwavering support, participation and commitment to improving the health and wellbeing of Western North Carolina. Your dedication has been instrumental in advancing the mission and shared goals of the WNC HPI.
As the year draws to a close, we invite each of you to reflect on what we have achieved together and to think about how we can build on these successes and what new opportunities we want to pursue in the coming year. We look forward to reconvening with you again in 2026 to collectively renew our commitment to improving health-related access, opportunities and outcomes for all Western North Carolinians.
A special thanks goes out to Dogwood Health Trust, UNC Asheville and the Mountain Area Health Education Center, for their continued support of the WNC HPI. Your commitment plays a critical role in enabling us to continue our work and make a meaningful impact in the community. We are deeply grateful for your partnership and look forward to seeing what we can achieve together.
