A Georgia House committee held a passionate debate Thursday over a pared-down bill to allow people to visit patients in hospitals and long-term care facilities during a public health emergency. The nation is currently in the midst of such an emergency — the COVID-19 pandemic. The original version of the “Right to Visit’’ legislation, House…
At first, Gail Manter thought the pandemic wouldn’t last long, and that she’d be able to see her husband, Tom, sooner rather than later. But the COVID-19 crisis in this country has now dragged on for 11 months. And instead of visiting Tom, 73, almost every day at his Hartwell nursing home, as she used…
Georgia’s recent spike in COVID-19 cases includes a comparable rise in the number of children getting the disease. “These aren’t necessarily cases linked to a [school] setting, but rather cases among children who are in these age groups,’’ said Amber Schmidtke, who tracks Georgia COVID trends in the Daily Digest. College-aged adult and young adults have…
He wanted to fix rural America’s broken nursing homes. Now, taxpayers may be on the hook for $76 million. By Max Blau This article was produced in partnership with ProPublica, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Georgia Health News is a member of the ProPublica Local Reporting Network. Nearly 20 years ago, Ronnie…
Public Health officials released information Friday about what the state agency called positive indicators on COVID-19 in Georgia. They include lower numbers of cases over the past week and decreasing COVID-19 hospitalizations statewide. And the percentage of tests coming back positive has dipped below 10 percent, the Department of Public Health announced. The news release…
The financial blow from COVID-19 has helped force the closure of a rural hospital in Georgia. Southwest Georgia Regional Medical Center was facing financial challenges even before the pandemic struck, and Randolph County, where it is located, has among the highest per-capita infection rates in the state. “It has become increasingly difficult for small, critical-access hospitals…
By Max Blau Nursing homes have become a constant battleground during the COVID-19 epidemic — in Georgia, around the nation and in several other countries. Nearly half of Georgia’s 2,784 deaths have come from long-term care facilities, a percentage that’s mirrored in national statistics. In mid-March, as COVID-19 quickly spread across southwest Georgia, PruittHealth was…
State Rep. David Knight had a triumphant look Friday when talking about his quest for more oversight and restrictions on the PBM industry. Pharmacy Benefit Managers are basically corporate middlemen between health insurers or large employers and drugmakers in handling pharmaceutical benefits. The Georgia General Assembly approved a group of bills in recent days to…
Story updated Georgia has received a federal shipment of a promising drug to treat seriously ill COVID-19 patients, Gov. Brian Kemp announced Tuesday. “We have received 30 cases with 40 vials of the drug per case, and we will be working with officials in the Department of Public Health to determine how it will be…
The Georgia Senate approved legislation Tuesday to increase transparency of health care prices for consumers. Senate Bill 303 would give insured Georgians the ability to query their insurer to learn their out-of-pocket costs before getting non-emergency services from a physician or hospital. Consumers could also get data on the medical providers’ quality of care. Other…