After months of contract limbo, the head of a state agency has denied health insurers’ appeals of the selection of vendors in a multibillion-dollar Medicaid and PeachCare procurement. In a letter dated Friday, obtained by Georgia Health News, the commissioner of the Department of Administrative Services said he concurred with a March decision by an…
With school out, summer is a prime time for play and fun for kids. But for parents of children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, summer can also be a great time for diagnosing and treating ADHD, says Dr. Mary Burns, an Atlanta psychiatrist. In a new Doctor’s Column, Burns writes that the “stakes are lower as the…
Jayvious Gilbert’s job isn’t easy. He’s a school nurse in an inner-city Atlanta neighborhood. Bullying among the students is a constant problem. “For the boys,” he says, “I can take them on a walk and try to help work things out. But the girls can be more verbal and personal — very mean to each other.” He tries to look…
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcUzFlk4VKg[/youtube]Ethnic minorities, low-income individuals and those who live in rural areas may be missing out on early diagnosis and state-of-the-art treatments for cystic fibrosis, according to Emory University researchers. That’s a serious problem because such measures can both lengthen and improve life. Heel-stick tests for newborns have been around for more than 50 years, and…
Georgia’s ranking among states on children’s overall well-being fell from 40th to 42nd in the annual Kids Count report. The 2016 report, released this week by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, judges each state on four categories: children’s economic well-being, education, health, and family and community. It generally compares data from 2008 with those from 2014, the…
The United States ranks 50th among countries in maternal mortality – worse than any other economically developed country. And when the U.S. states are compared, Georgia comes in at or near the bottom of the barrel. Regardless of whether Georgia has the highest rate of maternal death in the nation, or whether it is merely…
The director of the CDC on Thursday repeated his call for Congress to approve emergency funding to fight Zika, saying the delay in that appropriation “is impeding our ability to protect American women from this virus.” The agency’s priority ‘’is to protect pregnant women,’’ Dr. Tom Frieden, the head of the Atlanta-based CDC, told an Atlanta Press…
This is the seventh in a series of articles about health care in Southwest Georgia, an area of the state that has great health needs and challenges, but also some innovative approaches to such problems. The series is the product of a collaboration between Georgia Health News and the health and medical journalism graduate program at UGA…
Alone . . . back . . . crib. Those words highlight the message that Georgia’s first lady and health officials are emphasizing in a push to prevent sleep-related infant deaths. “We must educate parents about creating a safe sleeping environment for their babies,’’ Sandra Deal, wife of Gov. Nathan Deal, said in a statement….
The sudden onset of psychosis hits the patient’s family like a bomb. And when counselor Will Warren meets with parents facing the worst moment of their lives, he emphasizes two things: (1) This is not easy. (2) You’re not alone. A psychotic episode is a sudden, terrifying break with reality. Young people in their teens…