Unforeseen cancer, unexpected bills: A Georgian’s ordeal

The urgent care center diagnosed her condition as a bladder infection. But the pain in Diane Conine’s stomach soon became unbearable. “The pain got so bad, I was throwing up,’’ says Conine, 64. Her urine was filled with blood. She needed to go to the emergency room, her daughter decided. The daughter picked up Conine…

Rome’s former mental hospital may become a ‘Hope Village’

The 140-plus acres of Rome’s mental hospital have stayed empty and forlorn-looking since the facility closed eight years ago. The shuttering of Northwest Georgia Regional Hospital came as the state was just beginning to execute its settlement agreement with the Justice Department over hospital conditions and the lack of community services. The city government exhausted…

‘A big health care year’ under the Gold Dome

The battles over hospital regulation and financial disclosure appeared to be finished last week at the Georgia Legislature. But on Tuesday, as the 2019 General Assembly session was wrapping up, these prickly issues proved they weren’t dead after all. An attempt to allow a sports medicine and training center in Alpharetta failed to clear the…

State asking feds to end oversight of mental health services

Early this year, in the waning days of his tenure as Georgia governor, Nathan Deal wrote the U.S. Department of Justice a four-page letter, asking for an end to federal oversight of the state’s mental health and developmental disabilities system. The oversight role stems from a 2010 settlement agreement between the state and the Justice…

Breakthrough: Legislature approves CON changes, Medicaid funding plan, hospital transparency

In a whirlwind of activity on health care bills, the General Assembly on Friday approved substantial changes to the state’s certificate-of-need system and the renewal of a Medicaid funding mechanism. The CON provisions in House Bill 186 will allow Cancer Treatment Centers of America a pathway to expand the capacity of its Newnan facility and…

Hospital transparency, Medicaid funding bill OK’d by Senate, then sidetracked

The state Senate approved renewal of a Medicaid funding mechanism Thursday in a bill containing a major add-on: requiring extensive financial disclosures for nonprofit hospitals. But when that legislation later went to the House for its approval, that chamber voted to disagree with it, 89-81.  The measure, House Bill 321, will likely be reconsidered Friday…

As Kemp celebrates waiver win, White House pivot may complicate things

The state affirmed Wednesday that it will pursue its waiver plan despite the Trump administration’s renewed bid to eliminate the Affordable Care Act – the federal law under which at least part of the Georgia plan would be carried out. “We have regular contact with federal officials, and they continue to encourage us to submit…

Long waits for ambulances raising alarm

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…

An epic, hectic day for health care legislation in Georgia

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…

Kemp backs bid for CON changes, gets House panel OK on waiver plan

Gov. Brian Kemp has thrown his support behind major reforms of the state health care regulatory system, acting as legislation on the contentious issue was revived in a Senate committee Wednesday. A House bill to make sweeping changes to the certificate-of-need (CON) system recently failed to pass the House on Crossover Day. That normally means…