Dr. Roslyn Banks-Jackson worries about what will happen to many women of Emanuel County when the local hospital shuts its labor and delivery unit. She’s the only ob/gyn currently practicing in the east-central Georgia county. And the practice, Emanuel OB/GYN Clinic, owned by the hospital, will soon be closing as well. Many of her low-income…
A state Senate panel gave Georgia primary care doctors a potential financial boost Wednesday, putting millions of dollars into the state budget for a pay raise to deliver services to Medicaid patients. The Senate Appropriations Committee passed a budget that awards $5.9 million in state funds for a Medicaid pay raise to ob/gyns, and $13.6…
Georgia lawmakers considered insurance bills Wednesday that would create major changes in health plan networks in the state. The Senate Insurance and Labor Committee first heard testimony on Senate Bill 143, which would require the state employee and teacher health plan to include the state’s five Level 1 trauma centers as “in-network” facilities. That would…
If you type the phrase “What do doctors know about nutrition?” into an Internet search engine, the most common result will be “not much.” Some links will open on articles claiming that busy doctors have no time for diet advice during brief office visits. Other will lead to authors who chastise medical educators for drilling…
Dr. Michelle Zeanah is getting a big pay cut this month. It’s not that the Statesboro pediatrician is seeing fewer patients. Just the opposite. The 12 rural counties surrounding Bulloch County, where Statesboro is located, have no pediatrician. So Zeanah is very much in demand. Forty percent of her patients have driving distances of 45 minutes…
One in four Georgia hospitals earned an “A’’ grade in recently released ratings on patient safety. The 27 percent figure put Georgia hospitals roughly in the middle of the pack among states, according to the Leapfrog Group’s safety scores report. The ratings measure the ability of hospitals to prevent errors, injuries and infections. The report…
Georgia’s insurance commissioner, in a rare regulatory action, has told the state’s largest health insurer to rescind newly added amendments to contracts with thousands of physicians. Physicians had complained that the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia contract revisions lacked clarity on the insurer’s payment rates for medical services. “I heard from doctors all…
The state insurance department is looking at possible ways to strengthen a Georgia law that requires health insurers’ networks to give consumers adequate access to doctors and hospitals. “Georgia is not alone: The feds and all the states are looking at the issue,’’ Trey Sivley, director of the Division of Insurance and Financial Oversight for…
Months after she first read it, Vera Brown of Augusta is still upset about a letter she received from her health insurer. UnitedHealthcare wrote to notify her that it was dropping Dr. Sean Lynch, her physician, from its Medicare Advantage doctor network. “I’ve been with Dr. Lynch for years,’’ says Brown, 67, a registered nurse….
Dr. Danny Newman, like other physicians, recognizes that electronic health records are here to stay. Newman, an Augusta internist, has seen some of the benefits of replacing paper medical records with computerized data. One advantage, he said, is electronic prescribing of medications, which reduces mix-ups caused by unclear handwriting. But Newman isn’t thrilled with electronic…