RALEIGH, N.C., April 17, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Carolina Complete Health Network, Inc. (CCHN), a company formed to build and support a patient-focused, physician-led Medicaid health network, welcomes Richard W. Hudspeth, M.D. to its Board of Directors.

Dr. Hudspeth, of Hendersonville, NC, is the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Medical Officer of Blue Ridge Community Health Services, a non-profit, Federally Qualified Health Center (“FQHC”) in western North Carolina. He has been with Blue Ridge Community Health Services (BRCHS) since 2015. In addition, Dr. Hudspeth serves on the Clinical Faculty of the Hendersonville Family Medicine Residency Program.

Prior to 2015, Dr. Hudspeth was the Medical Director of Community Care of Western North Carolina, a regional network of healthcare professionals based in Asheville, NC.

Dr. Hudspeth received a B.A. from Duke University and an M.D. from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. He completed his family medicine residency at the University of Cincinnati and completed an obstetrics fellowship at the University of Utah.

Dr. Hudspeth’s addition to the Board of Directors further strengthens CCHN’s commitment to and working relationship with North Carolina’s FQHCs in advance of the pending implementation of Medicaid reform in North Carolina. FQHCs are non-profit, consumer-governed providers of integrated medical, dental, pharmacy, behavioral health, and enabling services. In North Carolina they are the health care home to over half a million patients. FQHCs receive federal assistance to provide sliding-fee services to assure no one is denied access to care.

“The addition of Dr. Hudspeth to CCHN’s Board of Directors represents CCHN’s recognition that FQHCs are a vital provider to our state’s Medicaid beneficiaries,” said Jeffrey Runge, CEO and President of CCHN. “We look forward to Dr. Hudspeth’s contribution to CCHN as the state gets closer to choosing the health plans that will care for the Medicaid patient population to which BRCHS has long been committed.”

About Carolina Complete Health Network, Inc. (CCHN)

CCHN is a subsidiary of the North Carolina Medical Society (NCMS) formed for the purpose of establishing, building and maintaining a physician-led network of providers to serve Medicaid beneficiaries in North Carolina. CCHN will furnish provider network services to a new, NC-based health plan, Carolina Complete Health, to serve Medicaid beneficiaries with value-based models-of-care. This new health plan is the result of a collaboration of NCMS, the North Carolina Community Health Center Association, and Centene Corporation to provide a patient-focused approach to Medicaid under the reform plan enacted in the State of North Carolina.