The Tenet Healthcare subsidiaries that previously owned two metro Atlanta hospitals have agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to defraud federal health programs and pay kickbacks and bribes for patient referrals, officials said Monday. Atlanta Medical Center and North Fulton Hospital in Roswell were owned by Texas-based Tenet until this April, when Marietta-based WellStar Health System bought…
Georgia ranks 39th among states on senior health, the same place as last year’s rating, according to a new report. But significant health challenges lie ahead for the next generation of Georgia seniors and their counterparts nationally, the report found. Georgia has more than 1 million people 65 and older. That figure amounts to roughly 10…
Federal health officials, citing potential harm to patients, is stopping Medicare and Medicaid payments to a fourth Georgia nursing home operated by a Tennessee-based company. Three of those Georgia facilities run by New Beginnings Care have closed, with state officials helping to relocate more than 200 patients. The fourth facility, in Abbeville, south of Macon,…
The federal government is cutting payments to 30 Georgia hospitals for high levels of infections and patient injuries. Of those hospitals, 16 were penalized last year for the same problems. The new Medicare crackdown on hospital-acquired infections and preventable injuries is similar to the existing federal penalties on excessive numbers of readmissions of patients within…
Georgia’s ranking on a health system score card has slipped to 46th in the nation. The Commonwealth Fund’s 2015 score card, which ranked the 50 states plus the District of Columbia, was released Wednesday. It noted that Georgia had improved on 11 measures, including having more children and adults with insurance, and more children up to date…
More than 450 hospitals, including several in Georgia, will pay a total of more than $250 million to settle allegations that cardiac devices were implanted in Medicare patients in violation of the program’s coverage requirements, the Department of Justice announced Friday. Georgia hospitals involved in the settlements include Emory University Hospital and Emory University Hospital…
A patient’s right to choose. Legislative authority on health care. “Cherry picking’’ the privately insured. These themes highlighted the vehement arguments made at a state agency hearing in Atlanta on Tuesday as advocates and critics clashed over a proposal to eliminate state requirements for a Newnan cancer hospital. The Department of Community Health’s board will vote next month…
Kaiser Permanente is again Georgia’s top-rated health plan in commercial insurance, according to the National Committee for Quality Assurance. It’s the 11th straight year that Kaiser, a nonprofit, got NCQA’s No. 1 rating among commercial health plans in the state. The NCQA rankings use a 1-to-5 scale, with 5 being the highest. The 2015-2016 ratings also…
WellStar Health System and Piedmont Healthcare are dropping key parts of their joint health insurance plan after just two years of operation. Citing costs, the two metro Atlanta systems have told medical providers that they’re discontinuing their Medicare Advantage plan for next year. The current 12,000 Medicare beneficiaries will have options to switch to another…
Last week, the hospital business in Georgia’s second-largest city received a double dose of financial misery. The first round of bad news centered on Columbus Regional Health. State Attorney General Sam Olens announced Friday that Columbus Regional and other related entities had agreed to pay Georgia and the United States up to $35 million to…