Fewer than half of U.S. school districts test their drinking water for lead, according to a federal report released this week.

But among those districts that do test, more than one-third found elevated lead levels in their water.

The report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) follows a renewed public health focus on lead since the 2015 environmental disaster in Flint, Mich., where a switch in water processing caused a spike in the percentage of children testing high for lead poisoning.

Lead poses serious health dangers for children, including impairment of memory and thinking skills, as well as behavioral problems. There is no safe lead ...

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Tom Crawford, the dean of state Capitol journalists, who reported on Georgia politics for more than three decades, has passed away after a long battle with cancer. He was 67.

He was a great inspiration to me. Tom’s Georgia Report model differed from ours at Georgia Health News, yet we shared a passion for our work as basically solo journalism acts.

Tom was generous with his time when helping a reporter who didn’t venture into the political jungle all that often.

Even when he was obviously ill, he explained to me in a patient, kindly manner just how the legislative machinery worked.

Not all ...

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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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