Two physicians organizations filed a lawsuit Tuesday against Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia and its parent company over the insurer’s emergency room payment policy, calling it “dangerous.’’

The parent company, Indianapolis-based Anthem, has pursued a new policy over the past year in Georgia and five other states, reviewing customers’ ER visits and limiting or denying payment for those it deems not to have been true emergencies.

The new lawsuit, from the Medical Association of Georgia (MAG) and the American College of Emergency Physicians, seeks to force Blue Cross to end its emergency care payment policy.

A similar lawsuit was filed by Piedmont Healthcare hospitals ...

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The term “virtual credit cards’’ sounds like some futuristic version of the typical plastic.

But to many doctors, dentists, hospitals and other medical providers, it’s very much a part of their present day. And not always desirable.

The Georgia General Assembly, in fact, took action on the virtual credit cards this year.

Here’s how the virtual cards work: A medical provider bills an insurer for a $100 service. The insurer can pay through an electronic funds transfer or a physical check, but instead delivers a virtual credit card to the provider.

There’s no actual plastic involved. The ‘‘card’’ is just a single-use series of numbers ...

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The White House is again slashing funds for the “navigators’’ who help enroll people in the Affordable Care Act insurance exchanges.

The cuts will almost certainly reduce the in-person assistance provided to Georgians seeking an exchange health plan for next year.

Macon-based Community Health Works, which oversees a navigator program in the state, said Wednesday that the federal navigator funding for the upcoming year’s enrollment for Georgia will be $500,000 – about one-third of the 2018 exchange total. The cuts will especially affect enrollment of hard-to-reach populations, experts said.

The federal funding for insurance navigators nationwide will drop to $10 million for the ...

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This article is reprinted with permission from Rural Health Quarterly

When Laurie* moved to rural western Colorado, she thought she had found a tranquil oasis to rest and die. Then 32, she was sober and living with HIV, but her health was waning and the mid-1990s HIV medications were taking a toll on her body.

“I moved to this area at a time in my life when I was dying, and wanted to move to an area that wasn’t busy or fast-paced, and a lot slower than what I was used to,” she said.

She couldn’t find a nearby doctor willing to take an HIV ...

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