More penalized Georgia hospitals . . . and more controversy

By Jordan Rau and Andy Miller Medicare has penalized 21 Georgia hospitals for having the highest rates of patient infections and potentially avoidable complications. That’s up slightly from the 18 hospitals in the state that drew penalties in the last round of federal assessments. For the penalized hospitals, Medicare payments are reduced by 1% for…

Judge extends order, keeping Northside patients in Anthem network till spring

 By Andy Miller and Ariel Hart A Fulton County judge Friday extended a reprieve in the contract dispute between Northside Hospital and Anthem until April 15, delaying for a second time the need for thousands of patients to switch doctors. Northside patients who have Anthem insurance have been caught in the middle of the battle between the…

No break from Covid: Metro Atlanta medical officials urge vaccinations

A 70-year-old man recently entered a metro Atlanta hospital after a fall. He subsequently tested positive for Covid, this is why it is import for concierge covid testing for those who have covid symptoms.. So did his daughter, who drove him to the hospital. Eight other family members also tested positive. Branstetter Three of the…

How a powerful company persuaded Georgia to let it bury toxic waste in groundwater

By Max Blau ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power.  Max Blau is an Atlanta-based ProPublica reporter who previously worked in partnership with Georgia Health News on a series of articles on coal ash. For the past several years, Georgia Power has gone to great lengths to skirt the federal rule requiring…

A rural Georgia community reels after hospital closes

Lacandie Gipson struggled to breathe. The 33-year-old woman with multiple health conditions was in respiratory distress and awaiting an ambulance. About 20 minutes after the emergency call, it arrived. The Cuthbert home where Gipson lived was less than a mile from Southwest Georgia Regional Medical Center, but the ambulance couldn’t take her to the one-story…

Patients stranded out of network as contract talks collapse

In September, when Shelly Azzopardi went to Wellstar Kennestone Hospital with abdominal pain, she didn’t worry about her insurance. Doctors said she had a case of appendicitis. But she also tested positive at the hospital in Marietta, Georgia, for Covid-19. Physicians decided not to do surgery and treated her with antibiotics and painkillers. Azzopardi, 47,…

Decline in Georgia’s Covid numbers may be just a lull

The recent news on Covid in Georgia appears quite good – cases, hospitalizations and deaths have all dropped to a low plateau, state health officials said Tuesday. But the number of vaccinations has also shown a recent decline, with the rate of Georgia residents fully vaccinated now hovering at about 50 percent. During October, vaccinations…

Uninsured in Georgia, South would win big under Democrats’ plan

By Phil Galewitz and Andy Miller At least 2.2 million low-income adults — nearly all in Texas and the Southeast — would be eligible for government-funded health insurance under the Democrats’ $1.75 trillion social spending and climate change plan. That’s the number of people who are eligible for Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act but…

Small towns, cops and mental health patients

By Katja Ridderbusch Every couple of weeks, police in Americus, a small city in southwest Georgia, respond to trouble at the home of the same young man. The man goes through psychotic episodes, sometimes violent ones. He’s on the autism spectrum and has been diagnosed with a brain tumor. The man got a lucky break…

Understaffed state psychiatric units leave patients in limbo

Many patients dealing with mental health crises are having to wait several days in an ER until a bed becomes available at one of Georgia’s five state psychiatric hospitals, as public facilities nationwide feel the pinch of the pandemic.“We’re in crisis mode,’’ said Dr. John Sy, an emergency medicine physician in Savannah. “Two weeks ago,…