Duke has 30 days to appeal decision
Cone Health has received state regulators’ conditional approval to build a new 46-bed acute care hospital in Mebane, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services has announced, simultaneously rejecting a competing application from Duke/Novant.
Cone Health filed a Certificate of Need (CON) application with the state on April 15, 2025 to build a 161,578-square foot hospital at 103 Medical Park Drive, adjacent to the existing Cone Health MedCenter Mebane. North Carolina’s CON law requires healthcare providers to obtain prior approval from state healthcare regulators before acquiring major medical equipment, expanding and/or offering new services, developing new facilities, or adding patient beds.
On the same day that Cone Health filed its CON application, April 15, Duke Health and Novant Health also jointly filed a CON application to build a $225 million, 46-bed hospital in Mebane.
The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) notified Duke Novant on Monday, September 22, that its application had been denied. Duke Novant has 30 days to file a petition with the Office of Administrative Hearings to contest the decision, according to the notice.
In their CON applications, both Cone and Duke/Novant had cited the 2025 State Medical Facilities Plan developed by DHHS, which concluded that based on projected population growth and other data, Alamance County would have a deficit of 46 hospital beds by 2027.
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The Certificate of Need that DHHS has approved for Cone Health Mebane Hospital is predicated on an approved capital expenditure of $250.3 million, according to the announcement.
Cone Health plans to complete construction of the new hospital in Mebane in 2028 and to open the facility in 2029, according to its CON application.
Preliminary plans outlined in Cone Health’s application describe the planned hospital in Mebane as including:
“The project includes the shift of three existing operating rooms (ORs) from the Mebane Surgery Center at MedCenter Mebane, the existing outpatient hospital campus that is licensed as part of ARMC,” according to the agency’s findings that accompany the announcement by DHHS.
The timeframe for construction, also approved as part of the Certificate of Need, requires construction drawings to be completed by mid-November 2026; construction to be completed by the end of December 2028; and services offered starting in April 2029, according to a letter that
Meanwhile, Alamance Regional Medical Center (now Cone Health Alamance Regional) in Burlington purchased eight acres along Mebane Oaks Road, near MedCenter Mebane, for $6.9 million in March of this year, according to Alamance County’s Register of Deeds.
“Being adjacent to Cone Health MedCenter Mebane makes this a strategic purchase for Cone Health,” Cone Health spokesman Doug Allred said in an earlier statement to The Alamance News. “While our exact plans are being determined, Cone Health looks forward to adding enhanced services to those already being delivered at MedCenter Mebane.”
If the cost to build the Mebane Hospital exceeds the approved capital expenditure ($250.3 million) by more than 115 percent, Cone Health will be required to obtain a new Certificate of Need, according to the notice that DHHS sent to Cone on Monday.
Cone Health estimates that the proposed Mebane hospital would lead to approximately 209 full-time equivalent jobs within the first full year of operation (2030); salaries would range from a low of $46,788 for a “host” to a high of $263,338 for a pharmacy manager, though benefits and taxes account for 29.5 percent of the estimated annual salaries, according to its CON application.