Georgia’s preterm birth rate rose from 11.2 percent to 11.4 percent in 2017, keeping the state at a “D’’ grade in the annual Premature Birth Report Card from the March of Dimes. The state’s rate of babies born too soon (before 37 weeks of pregnancy) continued to reflect large racial disparities, with black women at…
All of the political campaign talk on health care may have obscured the reality that starting Thursday, the health insurance exchange opens for business. Open enrollment for Georgia’s 2019 exchange, which operates under the Affordable Care Act, runs from Nov. 1 to Dec. 15. The coverage rules will feature a significant change: People who previously…
This is the first in a series of articles on foreign-born physicians practicing in Georgia. Other articles in this special report will focus 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 Muslim physicians here. Dr. Alluri Raju vividly…
Tens of millions of dollars in business and individual donations have gone to Georgia rural hospitals this year, thanks to a popular state tax credit program. But how hospitals are spending that money this year has not been officially tracked, the state says. And right now, there apparently isn’t publicly available information on how much…
The morning after Hurricane Michael struck, the hospital in Blakely got a call from the Early County sheriff’s office. A woman, 27 weeks pregnant, was in labor and needed to come to the hospital. Michael had swept through southwest Georgia, knocking out power, downing large numbers of trees and making roads impassable. The woman was…
More than 80 percent of uninsured Georgia children were eligible for coverage in government health insurance programs in 2016, but were not enrolled, a new report says. Several barriers to enrollment and medical services can prevent kids from getting the care they need, said the report, from the advocacy group Voices for Georgia’s Children. The…
Four years ago, a sports medicine group began a quest to build a surgery and training center in Alpharetta, in Atlanta’s northern suburbs. The proposed multimillion-dollar center was to be known as the Legacy Sports institute. It was associated with famed orthopedic surgeon Dr. James Andrews of Alabama, whose patients have included such sports luminaries…
Life expectancy at an English Avenue neighborhood address, in a low-income section of Atlanta, is 63.6 years. But less than 10 miles away, an address in the affluent Margaret Mitchell area of Atlanta, named after the famous writer, has a life expectancy of 87.2 years. Such startling variations commonly appear in new data that break…
A small DeKalb County nonprofit has been given a statewide grant to provide navigators for people seeking to enroll in the Affordable Care Act insurance exchanges. Navigators are people specially trained to advise and assist consumers who use the exchanges to buy health coverage. Georgia Refugee Health and Mental Health, based in Clarkston, will get…
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams rolled out a multi-pronged approach to improving Georgia health care Monday, including a familiar push for Medicaid expansion and a new call for stabilizing insurance premiums for consumers. Abrams also advocated for steps to lower Georgia’s infant and maternal mortality rates, along with supporting access to reproductive health care. The announcement…