Donna Martin, 73, was in her yard in Morgan County one day last summer when a wasp stung her. Martin, a grandmother and active tennis player, suffered a severe allergic reaction. She soon went into cardiac arrest. Her young granddaughter called 911. But both of the rural county’s ambulances were out on other calls. A…
The state House passed a high-profile bill Monday that would allow Gov. Brian Kemp to seek health care “waivers’’ from the federal government to expand and improve coverage in Georgia. And in another big vote, the Senate approved a bill to change Georgia’s controversial certificate-of-need system regulating medical providers. These votes were part of a…
Kids love school recess: Kicking a soccer ball, clambering up a jungle gym, chasing each other on a playground. And such unstructured play is not just fun, researchers say. Recess can help improve academic performance and reduce fidgety behavior and negative conduct in the classroom, health experts say. Thirty minutes of recess may become the…
This could be the General Assembly session that rocks Georgia health care. Between the regulatory reform measures already introduced, and the coming bill on federal “waivers,’’ lawmakers have a chance to reconfigure the medical landscape in the state. The waiver proposal from Gov. Brian Kemp is expected to be twofold. One proposal, if approved by…
The map of the United States shows four blue dots clustered in northern Georgia. They represent the metro Atlanta counties of Fulton, DeKalb, Gwinnett and Cobb. It’s not exactly surprising that the four — the most populous in our state — are among 48 counties in the nation that the Trump administration is targeting for…
David Carmon’s body began to shut down just three days after a mosquito bite over Labor Day weekend. He arrived at a Gainesville emergency room extremely ill. No one knew what was wrong. “They ran every test,” says his wife, Jessie. “By the fifth day, he was paralyzed, on a respirator and fighting for his life.”…
After years of delay, the merger between Northside Hospital and Gwinnett Health System may be close to becoming reality. Health care industry officials say the deal is close to approval by the Federal Trade Commission. That approval may come within a month or even sooner, say the officials, who are not associated with Northside or…
Asthma attacks used to send Aaron Johnson to the emergency room with frightening frequency. But now the Atlanta kindergartner has gone months without an ER visit. His mother credits the van that comes once a month to his school, Usher-Collier Elementary in west Atlanta. Aaron gets regular check-ups from the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta medical…
A state analysis of a potential Medicaid expansion in Georgia finds that the move would cost up to $148 million in fiscal 2020 and would cover up to 526,000 people. The “fiscal note,’’ requested by Georgia House Democrats, comes in the wake of a governor’s race in which the two major candidates split on the…
Health care took spotlight in governor’s race Brian Kemp won Georgia’s highest office, keeping Republicans in power and supporting the party’s longtime opposition to Medicaid expansion in the state. But Democrat Stacey Abrams, who not only endorsed expansion but made it a centerpiece of her campaign, came very close to defeating him. With Georgia’s high…