Following a similar move by a House panel, a Georgia Senate study committee has proposed some major changes in the state’s health care regulatory structure known as certificate of need (CON). The panel, chaired by state Sen. Ben Watson (R-Savannah), a physician, has formulated draft legislation that could ease restrictions involving Cancer Treatment Centers of…
During the past eight months, Georgia Health News and WebMD have investigated violations of a longstanding federal law on emergency room care. Our investigation found that over a 27-month period, about 1 in 7 of these ER violations involved patients who were having a mental health crisis, including having suicidal thoughts. Many patients battling mental…
Updated Friday at 11 a.m. Year after year, the Georgia General Assembly deals with proposals to revise the state’s health care regulatory rules. It’s always a contentious process, often pitting hospitals against one another. Even minor tweaks to the system typically get blocked before the end of the legislative session. Come January, though, the state’s…
This special report, Deprived of Care: When ERs Break the Law, is an investigation by WebMD and Georgia Health News. Here’s a link to Part 1, Lives lost amid ER violations, investigation finds Jamie Larson had just been wheeled into a room at Sutter Roseville Medical Center in Roseville, CA, after the birth of her first child…
The number of uninsured children in Georgia rose by 21,000 last year, mirroring a national increase, according to a new report. Georgia was one of nine states that had statistically significant increases in their rate of uninsured children, said the report from Georgetown University Center for Children and Families. The uninsured rate in Georgia rose to 7.5…
This special report, Deprived of Care: When ERs Break the Law, is an investigation by WebMD and Georgia Health News. Randy Strickland walked into the ER at North Metro Medical Center burning with fever and trembling. He told the man and the woman who were staffing the triage desk that he was nauseated and felt like…
Brian Kemp’s election as governor likely means that full-fledged Medicaid expansion will remain off the table in Georgia, at least for a while. Republican Kemp, who will take office in January, opposed Medicaid expansion during the campaign, while Democratic candidate Stacey Abrams strongly supported it. Gov. Nathan Deal and his fellow Republicans who control the…
This is the fourth in a series of articles on foreign-born physicians practicing in Georgia. Other articles in this special report have focused on barriers that immigrant doctors face if they want to work in the state; a clinic that serves mainly immigrant and refugee patients; and on Indian physicians here. If you get admitted…
Graduate students at the College of Public Health of the University of Georgia have created a “nonpartisan, fact-based infographic” detailing the health policy positions of gubernatorial candidates Stacey Abrams and Brian Kemp. To avoid political rhetoric, the graphic shows how the candidates describe their own views on health care in Georgia, and does not include…
This is the second in a series of articles on foreign-born physicians practicing in Georgia. Other articles in this special report will focus on other barriers that immigrant doctors face in order to work in the state; a clinic that serves mainly immigrant and refugee patients; and on Muslim physicians here. Here’s a link to…