Before the pandemic struck, Himali Patel and her brother owned five small retail businesses. Now they’re down to one — a dry cleaning establishment. They have seen a disheartening drop in their income as COVID-19 ravaged the economy. Patel, an Atlantan who has multiple medical conditions, has been getting her health insurance through the Georgia exchange….
Thousands of UnitedHealthcare members are now facing much higher out-of-pocket costs if they go to two Gwinnett County hospitals. The insurer’s contract with Northside Hospital Gwinnett (in Lawrenceville) and Northside Hospital Duluth ended March 1. Contract negotiations between insurers and hospitals sometimes become public and nasty in tone, but usually are settled before a renewal…
More than 16,000 Georgians signed up for coverage on the state’s insurance exchange during the first two weeks of a special enrollment period ordered by President Biden. That’s the third-highest total of any state, behind Florida and Texas, among the 36 states that let the federal government run their exchanges. (The other states run their…
State officials “are looking at all options’’ after the Biden administration appeared to halt Georgia’s upcoming plan for increasing Medicaid enrollment. Frank Berry, commissioner of the Department of Community Health, told a House Appropriations subcommittee Tuesday that officials are reviewing a letter, sent by federal health officials, that expressed ‘’serious concerns’’ about the Georgia plan’s…
The Biden administration is reportedly aiming to take steps to unravel recent federal decisions on health care. If pursued, those moves could have a major impact on Georgia’s Medicaid and private insurance waivers, recently approved by the Trump administration. The Washington Post reported this week that President Biden may take executive action to reopen the…
More than half a million Georgians are enrolled in the state’s health insurance exchange for next year, a more than 10 percent increase from 2020. The increase is partly due to many people signing up after losing their jobs and their employer-based health insurance. The insurance exchange was created by the Affordable Care Act for those…
The grim statistics of COVID-19 include more than just the number of cases, hospitalizations and deaths. A national report says Georgia has the highest percentage in the nation of families with children concerned about losing their housing in the next month due to income loss from the pandemic. The report from the Annie E. Casey…
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…
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…