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…
An estimated total of $58 million in rebates will be split among 202,000 Georgians who had individual Ambetter policies last year, according to state officials. The payouts are required under a rule in the Affordable Care Act. The amount of rebates to Ambetter policyholders would be similar to the payout last year from the insurer,…
A poll of likely Georgia voters found that a large majority believe former Vice President Joe Biden will do a better job than President Donald Trump on protecting coverage for pre-existing health conditions and on responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings are part of a Commonwealth Fund poll on health care issues in what…
Hospitals in the United States are charging private insurers 2.5 times what they get paid under the government Medicare program for the same services, according to a study released Friday. In Georgia, hospitals charge private insurers even higher rates, at nearly three times Medicare reimbursements, the RAND Corp. study found. But that’s not as high as the…
Georgia slipped to No. 46 among the states in a new ranking of health system performance, down from 42nd the previous year. The new 2020 Commonwealth Fund report on states’ health system performance, released Friday, noted that Georgia performed well by certain measures. Those include a high rate of diabetic adults having an annual hemoglobin…
Teachers and state employees will face an average hike of 5 percent in health insurance premiums for 2021 coverage. That would be the first premium increase in the past three years for non-Medicare members in the State Health Benefit Plan (SHBP), which covers 673,000 state employees, teachers, other school personnel, dependents and retirees. The monthly…
People seeking coverage in the Georgia health insurance exchange for 2021 will see moderate price increases and a similar choice of plans. All six insurers that offer health plans in this year’s exchange are returning to the market for 2021 coverage, according to initial filings with the state insurance department. The exchange, created by the…
Story updated Gov. Brian Kemp on Wednesday vetoed a bill that aimed to bring more transparency and accountability to contractors for state health care plans. House Bill 991 would have allowed a newly formed committee to examine records related to health care contractors for the state and compel the Department of Community Health to respond…
Georgia has streamlined its proposal to the feds for a waiver on health insurance rules, and has postponed its launch till 2022. State officials cited “the unanticipated impact of COVID-19 on the state and its residents’’ in the announcement last week about the changes. The pandemic has required a “prioritization of resources” dedicated to responding…
Humana went full-throttle when the health insurance exchange debuted in Georgia six years ago. The federal Affordable Care Act created exchanges in the states to help people without job-related or government coverage buy reasonably priced insurance. And Humana’s lower prices for policies attracted many Georgia exchange customers. But Louisville, Ky.-based Humana saw this part of its…