A contentious bid to create North Carolina’s largest healthcare provider has ceased — for the time being. UNC Health Care’s Board of Directors and UNC’s Board of Governors, which govern both the seventeen-hospital, increasingly rural health system and UNC’s medical school, last week voted against the merger, as they opposed ceding decision-making control to Atrium under the proposed new system.

“If they had combined operations, the UNC partnership with Atrium would have formed a giant hospital network with 60 hospitals and 90,000 employees in three states,” reported Raleigh’s News & Observer. “The massive organization would have given UNC Health Care access to 6.3 million potential patients in North Carolina, nearly twice the number of patients it now reaches.”

What’s next for UNC Health, as it seeks to secure its revenues in the face of falling reimbursements? Get in-depth analysis here, from the News & Observer‘s John Murawski.