MEA|NEA, a health IT company based in the Atlanta suburb of Norcross, announced Tuesday that it has acquired another company in the industry, the White Stone Group. The combined company has more than 1 million customers in the medical and dental markets. MEA|NEA said it will form two complementary business units — one focused on providers, patients and insurers…
More than 1,100 Georgia pediatricians have joined a new physician-led network that aims to improve quality of care and eventually contract for payments from insurers. The sign-ups so far represent roughly one-third of the total number of pediatricians practicing in the state. Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta helped create the nonprofit entity, called the Children’s Care…
When signing the bill creating Medicare and Medicaid 50 years ago, President Lyndon B. Johnson held the ceremony in Independence, Missouri, where former President Harry Truman lived. Truman, who had pushed unsuccessfully for national health insurance during his own presidency, was at LBJ’s side during the signing. (And in one of those of odd coincidences…
This article is reprinted with permission from WABE. The last patient of the day lies on the operating table of Dr. Kenneth Neufeld. Time to play some hip-hop. “Oftentimes we change the music at the end of the day to give every one in the room a little bit of an energizing boost just to…
Two Cartersville ob/gyns filed suit Tuesday to overturn the state’s health care regulatory process, saying it restricts competition and is unconstitutional. Drs. Hugo Ribot and Malcolm Barfield are challenging the Georgia certificate-of-need program, a complex set of regulations governing the creation and expansion of medical facilities. The CON process has long been controversial because hospitals…
The recently named CEO of Piedmont Atlanta Hospital says being a doctor will give him an advantage in his new role. “As a physician, seeing what the nuts and bolts of what our patients are going through brings an additional lens’’ to the position, said Dr. Patrick Battey, who will take over as CEO in…
Hundreds of Georgians have received cancer treatment under a new payment model created by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia’s parent company. Last year, Georgia was one of six states that Anthem chose to begin the oncology program, which encourages doctors to treat patients under a standardized cancer regimen. Physicians get extra pay if…
Is there a feasible way to reform the medical malpractice system? Would changes be worthwhile? Katja Ridderbusch, an Atlanta-based foreign correspondent for German news media, looks to European and other countries’ legal systems for an answer. In a new GHN Commentary, Ridderbusch describes the differences between tort systems and poses possible solutions for the high…
Atlanta physician Dr. Scott A. Kelly says he has learned plenty from his patients. Listening to people he has treated has made him a better doctor, Kelly says. He has written a book about being taught such lessons from patients, titled “What I’ve Learned from You.” In a new GHN Commentary, Kelly adds that part…
What physicians do isn’t normal. I remember leaving the soccer fields of Emory University, where I was an All-American player, to arrive in medical school to a room full of cadavers. That’s just not normal. Several years later, I was working as a resident in the emergency room at Atlanta’s Grady Memorial Hospital. I had…