More than 16,000 Georgians signed up for coverage on the state’s insurance exchange during the first two weeks of a special enrollment period ordered by President Biden.

That’s the third-highest total of any state, behind Florida and Texas, among the 36 states that let the federal government run their exchanges. (The other states run their own exchanges.)

The special sign-up period was created to help people dealing with the economic fallout of ...

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The Federal Trade Commission has revealed that it investigated a proposed merger of hospital systems in Middle Georgia.

The announcement Wednesday that the FTC had reviewed the deal – and then closed its probe – came less than a week after the two hospital systems said they were calling the deal off. Atrium Health Navicent, in Macon, and Houston Healthcare, based in Warner Robins, said last Thursday that they had ended ...

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A state Senate committee passed a much pared-down version of legislation that would have restructured the Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH).

Senate Bill 256 went from 32 pages to two in its latest version, which received unanimous approval from the Senate Health and Human Services Committee on Tuesday.

The original version would have taken authority from counties’ boards of health and given it to the ...

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A committee of the Georgia House, despite industry opposition, passed a bill Monday allowing people to visit patients in hospital and long-term care facilities during a public health emergency — like the current pandemic.

House Bill 290 would allow a “legal representative,’’ usually a loved one, to visit a patient or resident for a minimum of an hour a day, if that person meets a facility’s safety standards.

The House Human Resources ...

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