To the Editor: In commenting on the Feb. 14, 2017, article “Proposal to End ‘Surprise’ Billing Tied Up over Payment Formula,” we at FAIR Health first acknowledge and applaud the Georgia Legislature’s serious efforts to protect consumers from balance billing for emergency and surprise bills. But we also wish to clarify the role that FAIR…
A Georgia Senate panel Thursday passed legislation to halt ‘’surprise’’ medical billing – but not without a last-minute amendment that changed the contentious payment formula. The Health and Human Services Committee approved Senate Bill 8, which will address those situations in which patients get unexpected bills from providers who are not in their network, even…
A Senate bill that aims to prevent ‘’surprise’’ medical billing remains stalled. The major snag is a lack of agreement on a formula to determine reimbursement rates for doctors, said Sen. Renee Unterman, the bill’s sponsor, at a legislative hearing Tuesday. Unterman, a Republican from Buford, is also a nurse and has been concerned about…
Physician, hospital and insurer groups each expressed concerns Tuesday about Georgia Senate legislation that aims to prevent “surprise billing’’ of patients. The Senate Health and Human Services Committee heard testimony on a proposal to halt these medical bills, which can come from ER doctors, anesthesiologists, radiologists, pathologists and others who are not in a patient’s…
When his 5-year-old son suffered a burn injury, Michael Caraway took him to a local hospital emergency room. The hospital was in Caraway’s insurance network. His son got successful treatment and went home. Caraway, of Grovetown, says that weeks later, he got the ER bill that he expected . . . and another one that…
Born in Macon, one of four girls raised by a single mother, Dr. Valerie Montgomery Rice has met every challenge with dedication, service and success. Montgomery Rice is now president and dean of Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta — the first woman to hold that prestigious position. In addition to her professional accomplishments, Montgomery…
At first, Richard Paskach was a bit skeptical. Earlier this year, the health care executive with Minneapolis-based HealthPartners heard an explanation of an ambitious new project. But he believed that it could have trouble achieving its central goal: connecting medical providers with a varied landscape of public health entities. Now, though, he sees the possibilities…
The Georgia Supreme Court has agreed to hear a high-profile open records case involving Northside Hospital in Atlanta. The case involves the nonprofit hospital’s rejection of requests for information about its financial documents and other matters. Central to the case is the legal definition of “public” versus “private.” The Georgia Open Records Act, known as…
Health care spending for the privately insured increased 4.6 percent nationally in 2015, higher than the hikes in the prior two years, according to a report released Tuesday. The report from the Health Care Cost Institute said the biggest factor in the higher spending was an increase in prices for services such as inpatient hospital…
In simpler times, most Americans lived in villages and knew all their neighbors, and local doctors routinely made house calls to care for their patients. Those times are gone. But patient convenience is still an important factor in the fast-changing health care system. In a new GHN Commentary, John Marrero, SouthCoast’s health administrator, writes of…