Atrium Health wants to buy your loyalty with discounted copays, and the State Health Plan will pay for it. Atrium’s new “Affordability Protection Program” lowers out-of-pocket costs for members who stay with its doctors and hospitals, but Atrium isn’t lowering the prices it charges the Plan.

Treasurer Brad Briner says Atrium will be the most expensive major health system in the state in 2027, and that this scheme could cost the Plan more than $100 million next year. His verdict: if the program stays in place, it will bankrupt the State Health Plan.

Every Plan member will feel the strain through higher premiums, thinner benefits and less money for raises and COLAs.

Briner and the Plan filed a lawsuit today to stop Atrium from implementing the program, arguing that it is an illegal effort to meddle in the Plan. The Plan also extended its Open Enrollment period, which opens Monday, by a week to Nov. 6 because of the confusion Atrium has created.

Yes, some members in the Triad and Charlotte areas would save at the counter in the short run. That’s the point. Atrium is counting on a small discount today to keep members using its high-priced care while everyone pays more tomorrow.

Instead of competing on price, Atrium is trying to buy its way around the tiered network. This scheme was announced with no warning to the Plan, weeks after a deal that gave 12 of its hospitals a better tier, and days before open enrollment.

SEANC Executive Director Ardis Watkins called it “smoke and mirrors at best.”

“Simply make your prices more reasonable and less outrageous, and these gimmicks would be unnecessary,” she said.

SEANC stands with the Treasurer. Atrium is the largest, richest health system in North Carolina. If it truly wants to make state employees whole, it can lower its prices to the Plan like everyone else did.

We discussed the program at length in this week’s episode of The SEANC View Podcast. We also talked about the gas tax pause passed this week by the legislature and signed into law today by Gov. Josh Stein.