A pandemic can easily skew the trajectory of health statistics. Amid this year’s long COVID-19 crisis, things may actually have improved in a couple of health categories, such as a higher number of people using telehealth services. But many categories are likely to have worsened – and some dramatically. The United Health Foundation released its…
Georgia expects to receive several hundred thousand doses of COVID vaccines this month for its initial distribution, the state Public Health commissioner said Tuesday. The first groups to get shots will be health care workers and residents and staff of long-term care facilities, said the commissioner, Dr. Kathleen Toomey, at a news conference at the…
Many Georgia hospitals have seen a steady and troubling rise in COVID patients in recent weeks. And hospital leaders are worried that gatherings during the Thanksgiving holidays will drive those numbers even higher in the next couple of weeks. Many states are currently being hit harder than Georgia in terms of a COVID hospital crunch….
Georgia has earned an “F’’ grade for its rising rate of preterm births, according to a newly released report. The 2020 March of Dimes Report Card, released this week, said the state’s rate of preterm births, often called premature births, climbed to 11.7 percent in 2019, continuing a steady climb from a bottom of 10.7…
It’s perilous to predict a court or jury decision based on the arguments presented. But supporters of the Affordable Care Act will be heartened by the comments of two Supreme Court justices Tuesday during oral arguments on the bid by several states to overturn the 2010 law. Georgia is among the 18 states, all led…
Federal officials, as expected, have approved Georgia’s waiver request to revamp the state’s health insurance market for people who don’t get job-based or government coverage. The waiver will create a “reinsurance’’ program that state officials estimate will cut insurance premiums for individual coverage by an average of 10 percent. It will also replace the healthcare.gov enrollment system…
The surge in telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic has leveled off, with more patients seeing their doctors in person again. But experts say virtual medical appointments will continue, and with more frequency than before COVID struck. Some of the change appears permanent. In Georgia and nationally, the early days of the pandemic saw incredible growth…
For a year of her life, Linda Ferguson lived in a booth at a transit stop. She spent another year living under a bridge. Her homelessness, she says now, “was a bad situation. Nobody likes to be outside. It’s a very insecure feeling.’’ At one point Ferguson, who deals with severe anxiety attacks, lost her…
Federal health officials gave formal approval Thursday to Gov. Brian Kemp’s request for a waiver to expand health coverage options for low-income Georgians. States have to seek federal permission for changes in certain health care programs, and Gov. Kemp submitted two proposals for federal waivers several months ago. The plan under the newly granted Medicaid…
Many rural households are struggling with access to health care and financial problems during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a national poll released Wednesday. The poll of more than 500 adults living in rural areas found that one in four of these families said they had a member unable to get medical care for a…