The small South Georgia town of Plains currently has no practicing physician.

But that’s about to change, thanks in part to advocacy from the town’s most famous resident.

Former President Jimmy Carter’s efforts have helped lead Mercer University School of Medicine to open a primary clinic in the town next month, said the dean of the school, Dr. Jean Sumner.

Carter, 93, was born in Plains and resides there. As governor of Georgia and later as president, he brought worldwide attention to the small community in the heart of farm country.

Sumner said that Carter, a Mercer trustee, called the university’s president and talked ...

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Emory Healthcare and Kaiser Permanente announced a new collaboration Wednesday that will make two Emory hospitals the primary facilities for Kaiser doctors and patients in metro Atlanta.

Under the agreement, Kaiser will introduce its national model of hospital care to Emory University Hospital Midtown and Emory Saint Joseph’s Hospital. The California-based nonprofit insurer, which operates 39 hospitals in other states, said it would be able to implement its hospital “playbook’’ for its members at the two Emory Atlanta facilities.

The Emory set-up, which begins in October, will differ from Kaiser’s current arrangement with Piedmont and Northside in that the insurer operated under ...

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Joy Kramer was diagnosed with lymphoma 13 years ago. She recovered a year later, and remains cancer-free today at 59.

But for years after her treatment, Kramer fought to get affordable insurance. Her premiums and deductibles soared because of her pre-existing medical condition. For a while she gave up, going uninsured for several months.

The Affordable Care Act drastically changed things.

First Kramer qualified for a Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan that lowered the cost of her coverage. Then in 2014 came the full implementation of the ACA, which prohibited insurers from denying coverage or charging higher premiums to consumers with pre-existing health conditions.

Kramer, ...

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Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta has taken its first step toward state approval of its plan for a $1.5 billion North Druid Hills campus.

It would be the largest hospital construction plan, in terms of cost, in the history of the Georgia certificate-of-need (CON) program, experts say.

The pediatric care organization recently filed a letter of intent to apply for a state permit, or CON, to build a new hospital on a campus at I-85 and North Druid Hills Road in the Atlanta suburb of Brookhaven.

A letter of intent comes 30 days before a CON application is filed.

The state regulatory process can be ...

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