Medical-testing testing company LabCorp wants to consolidate its billing operations and could receive nearly $900,000 in taxpayer incentives if it chooses a site in Greensboro.

The Burlington-based company is reportedly considering moving its billing operations from 24 sites across the country to one location in Greensboro or in Danville, Va. The move would bring 373 jobs to Greensboro.

On Thursday, Guilford County commissioners approved giving the company $248,791. Greensboro also is offering $373,000. And the state would contribute a $275,000 grant, Dan Lynch, president of the Greensboro Economic Development Alliance told the Greensboro News-Record.

The jobs would pay about $27,000 a year. LabCorp employs about 28,000 workers worldwide, including more than 1,000 in the Triangle.

Duke Raleigh Hospital plans to move its cramped wellness and fitness center to a much larger facility in an upscale retirement community at the nearby North Hills development.

The existing wellness facility is about 7,500 square feet in one of oldest buildings on the hospital’s campus. A new, 20,000 square-foot facility will be part of The Cardinal at North Hills, left, a $150 million retirement community that’s expected to open in 2011.

The new facility will aim to attract older customers interested in medically focused fitness, said Duke Raleigh spokeswoman Carla Parker Hollis. That’s a fast-growing market as Wake County’s senior population continues to surge.

“The market is pretty competitive when it comes to wellness,” Hollis said.

One of Wake County's largest employers is reinstating an incentive plan it suspended earlier this year as the recession raged.

WakeMed next month will hand out about $6.5 million in checks through its "WakeShare" program. The program was canceled in March to help WakeMed meet its budget for the fiscal year that ended on Sept. 30.

But other cost-cutting, including eliminating 85 jobs in September, allowed the Raleigh-based health system to exceed its earlier financial projections. WakeMed also recently received high marks on a quality and patient satisfaction survey and the hospital's management wanted to reward workers.

"We could not be more proud of what you have helped WakeMed achieve in one of its most challenging financial years due to the nation's economic trial," CEO Bill Atkinson wrote in a memo to WakeMed's more than 7,500 employees.

Wake County's largest hospital system is exploring a potential partnership with a private company that runs a chain of outpatient surgery centers across the country.

WakeMed's discussions with Surgical Care Affiliates could lead to various collaborations, including SCA managing WakeMed's three outpatient facilities in Raleigh and Cary.

Another possibility would involve WakeMed buying a majority stake in SCA's only local facility, the Blue Ridge Surgery Center just down the street from rival Rex Healthcare.

The two organizations expect to decide on an agreement by the end of February. WakeMed CEO Bill Atkinson said hospital officials have talked with Birmingham, Ala.-based SCA for several years about joining forces.

Tapping SCA's experience will help as Wake County's population continues to grow and WakeMed looks at adding more outpatient centers, Atkinson said. Demand for such centers, which are seen as a way to control medical costs compared with inpatient hospitals, could increase with a reformed health-care system.

The No. 2 executive at WakeMed, one of Wake County's largest private employers, is leaving to run a hospital in Milwaukee.

Deborah G. Friberg joined WakeMed in 1995 and has served as chief operating officer since 2006. The Raleigh-based hospital system has hospital campuses and clinics across Wake County and about 7,700 employees.

She is moving to Columbia St. Mary's in Milwaukee, a health system of four hospitals, 62 clinics, a nursing college and several urgent-care facilities. The system is preparing to open a $500 million hospital that Friberg will oversee as president.

More North Carolina residents are skipping visits to the doctor and dentist as the recession rages on.

An annual survey done in April and May for Blue Cross and Blue Shield, the state's largest health insurer, showed that 36 percent of residents were buying fewer prescription medicines and 31 percent were refilling prescriptions less quickly.

As expected, the 12 percent of respondents without insurance were cutting back the most. Of those, nearly half were postponing health screenings and operations, compared with 13 percent of those with coverage. And 43 percent of the uninsured were not getting physicals, compared with 13 percent with insurance.

“The recession and rising health care costs are having an impact on preventive health services – the very services that can help detect or prevent more serious and costly health problems down the road,” said Blue Cross chief medical officer Don Bradley, in a prepared statement. “But there’s never a good time to skip preventive health and healthy living.”

A health-care consulting company plans to add 300 jobs in Charlotte over the next five years, state officials announced today.

Premier Inc. already employs about 750 people in Charlotte out of its total work force of 1,100. State officials promised the company up to $4,089,000 in incentives if it creates the new jobs and keeps all the existing ones.

The company will move its headquarters to Charlotte from San Diego as part of the expansion. The new jobs will pay average annual salaries of at least $62,460.

Premier helps hospitals reduce costs, improve care and negotiate the best prices for supplies and services. In March, the company named as its new CEO Susan DeVore, who lives in Charlotte.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina has promoted one of its top executives to president, putting him in line to succeed CEO Bob Greczyn, who plans to retire next year.

The board of the state's largest health insurer over the weekend approved naming chief operating officer J. Bradley Wilson to the president spot. Greczyn will remain CEO, but has indicated he will step down in 2010.

Wilson, 56, is a lawyer who joined Blue Cross in 1995 after serving as general counsel for Gov. Jim Hunt. Wilson, who holds degrees from Appalachian State, Wake Forest and Duke universities, also is on the University of North Carolina board of governors.

Greczyn, 58, has been CEO and president for 11 years. The health insurer covers more than 3.7 million members, including as administrator for the state employees' health plan.

A Morrisville company that helps businesses convert paper documents to digital form has been bought by a Scranton, Pa.-based document-management firm.

No, this isn't an episode of TV's "The Office."

Active Data Services, which provides document and billing services to health-care, insurance and financial customers, was acquired by Diversified Information Technologies of Scranton -- where the TV comedy is set.

Most of ADS' 105 employees will stay in Morrisville but shift to the new company. "This isn't the typical slash-and-burn type acquisition," said Diversified CEO Scott Byers.

The deal is part of Diversified's strategy of expanding its business in the "Maine to Miami corridor" and gives the company a strong foothold in the Triangle, Byers said. ADS' clients include Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, College Foundation, AICPA and Allscripts-Misys Healthcare Solutions.