RALEIGH, N.C. — Dr. Greg Murphy is a urologist who has worked in healthcare for decades, including with East Carolina University’s medical school and healthcare system.

Rep. Greg Murphy is a congressman who has represented North Carolina’s 3rd Congressional District since 2019, in a part of the state where ECU is a dominant employer and moneymaker.

The two, of course, are the same man. And his public and private responsibilities are intertwined.

While in Congress, Murphy has advocated for and helped secure funding for the university and its healthcare system, including by having fellow members of the U.S. Ways and Means Committee come to Greenville to tour facilities.

Advocating for a prominent academic health care system in one’s district is neither uncommon nor unethical for a congressman, a Duke University public-policy professor said. Where an ethical line should be drawn, he said, depends on Murphy’s financial relationship with ECU Health and his disclosure of that relationship.

Murphy in an emailed statement to The News & Observer said he has cleared all his activities through the U.S. House Committee on Ethics.

Ashlin Elliott, a spokesperson for ECU Health, told The N&O that Murphy is not currently an employee of ECU Health but that the health care system contracts with him through a physician services agreement.

Murphy’s federal financial disclosure forms from the past two years don’t report any income from ECU. They do show two healthcare-related businesses. But Murphy said neither operates anymore. The Department of the Secretary of State confirmed that one business was previously dissolved, but said it was reinstated in January of this year. It was dissolved again last month.

Murphy’s ties to ECU

Murphy, a Greenville Republican, previously worked as the president of Eastern Urological Associates in Greenville, which was a private practice, and as a professor and chief of the Division of Urology at the ECU Brody School of Medicine.

He also served as chief of staff for Vidant Medical Center, a hospital and trauma center now known as ECU Health Medical Center. Vidant Health and the ECU School of Medicine entered into a joint agreement in 2021 to create ECU Health, according to the healthcare system.

ECU Health said at the time that “most Vidant entities and ECU Physicians will operate under the new brand while the Brody School of Medicine’s name will not change.”

Eastern Urological Associates provided services for patients at Vidant Medical Center and other Vidant hospitals.

Vidant, now ECU Health, says it acquired Eastern Urological Associates in 2019.

Murphy said he signed a professional service agreement with ECU Health to “provide medical services.”

“As allowed by Ethics, I am allowed to use the receipts to pay for my [continuing medical education], malpractice insurances, licenses,” he added.

The chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party said Murphy’s actions and his motivations “should be concerning.”

Murphy said “there is no conflict of interest whatsoever,” and that he is “merely taking care of patients.” He said he still sees patients a couple of days a month, “as I have for the last seven years, without personal compensation because I love serving them.”

“The assertion that practicing physicians closest to patients should not be in Congress is an affront to those trying to deliver accessible and affordable healthcare,” he said. “We need more doctors, not more empty suits in Washington.”

Business ownership and disclosure

Murphy, on financial disclosure documents covering 2024 and 2025, reported that he owned a practice called Greenville Urology Clinic.

The clinic in 2024 was valued between $1 million and $5 million, and brought Murphy between $15,000 and $50,000 in rental income, according to the report. In 2025, the clinic was valued between $100,000 and $250,000 and brought in the same range of income as the year before.

Murphy is also the registered agent of a business called GUC Properties, LLC, according to the North Carolina Department of the Secretary of State.

Secretary of State records also show that the LLC is registered with an address of 275 Bethesda Dr., Greenville. It’s the same address once occupied by Eastern Urological Associates. Today, ECU Health Urology of Greenville, an active practice, shares that same address.

Murphy told The N&O that neither GUC Properties, LLC, nor the Greenville Urology Clinic exist anymore. He said the LLC “was the professional partnership when the practice was private.”

He did not respond to a follow-up question about when the LLC and clinic closed, and whether he needed to correct the information on his financial disclosure documents.

Liz Proctor, a spokesperson for the NC Department of the Secretary of State, said the LLC was “administratively dissolved” on Sept. 18 after an overdue annual report that was due April 15. She said the LLC can file for reinstatement.

Proctor said the LLC has been administratively dissolved a handful of times before September, also due to late reports. The LLC had been reinstated already this year in January.

Proctor said it isn’t uncommon for LLC owners to file for reinstatement after businesses are dissolved because of overdue annual reports.

Murphy did not respond to a question about whether he would file for reinstatement.

Work in Congress supporting ECU Health

Murphy said he has “always advocated for patients and rural healthcare. I will always continue to do so.”

He said the relationship between the former clinic, the LLC and ECU Health was “formally disclosed” when he came to Congress and that “all my activities have been approved by the Ethics Committee.”

“My practice as a physician has no relation whatsoever to my official duties as a member of Congress,” Murphy said.

He added that The N&O’s questions about the financial relationship are an “absurd attack.”

In 2021, Murphy and then- Rep. G.K. Butterfield, a Democrat who at the time represented North Carolina’s 1st Congressional District, sent a joint letter to top Republicans in the North Carolina state legislature in support of state funding for a new building for the Brody School of Medicine.

Murphy is quoted in the letter to say that the “Brody School of Medicine far outpaces all North Carolina medical schools in students staying in state after graduation.”

Construction on the new Brody Center for Medical Education started in 2025 and is expected to finish up by August 2027, according to ECU. The seven-story building will connect to the Brody Medical Sciences Building and “will support enrollment growth from 100 up to 120 medical students each year.”

The General Assembly initially allocated $215 million toward the construction, The N&O previously reported. The legislature later allocated$50 million more.

In 2023, five members of the U.S. House Committee on Ways and Means, including Murphy, visited two ECU Health facilities for a community tour. Murphy said at the time that he was glad to have the members “spend time in Eastern North Carolina to look at rural healthcare,” according to ECU Health.

In April of this year, health system leaders went to Washington to testify in front of the Ways and Means Committee about healthcare affordability. Michael Waldrum, who has served as the CEO of ECU Health for more than a decade, was one of the witnesses.

Murphy during the hearing said “we have to fix this problem” of unaffordable healthcare.

“There is culpability everywhere, from hospitals to insurance companies to pharmaceutical companies,” he said.

Asher Hildebrand, the director of Duke University’s Master of Public Affairs program and a former Democratic staffer, told The N&O that “there’s nothing wrong” with members of Congress advocating for major businesses in their district. He said there are no laws prohibiting members of Congress from owning private businesses while serving in office.

Hildebrand said that Murphy’s activity on the Ways and Means Committee as well as site visits to ECU Health “are fairly common means of advocacy.”

“Where I see Rep. Murphy’s case as potentially going beyond that, depending on what the specific facts are, is that it would be a potential ethics concern for a member of Congress to advocate for a business interest in which he has a personal stake, without disclosing that,” Hildebrand said. “That’s especially the case if in there was any advocacy that was non-public.”

Hildebrand said the question is whether Murphy has a financial stake in an entity that he’s advocated for — “and, if so, that’s where you can see some red flags.”

Anderson Clayton, the chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party, said in a statement that “we know the healthcare system is broken, with working people paying sky-high costs and hospitals and shareholders making millions.”

“A congressman who makes his money from big healthcare while in office should be concerning and voters deserve to understand what’s really motivating Greg Murphy,” she said.

Murphy is running for reelection and will face Democratic candidate Raymond Smith in November.

Early voting for the 2026 general election starts Oct. 15 and ends at 3 p.m. Oct. 31. Election Day is Nov. 3.

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