Lelia Stina had to act fast when her 4-year-old son, Liam, developed severe breathing problems last August. First she took him to an urgent care center in Rome, but it was a Sunday night and the center was closed. So she drove to Redmond Regional Medical Center, a hospital that’s in the network of her…
The number of Georgians with cards allowing possession of medical cannabis has soared more than 70 percent in one year. Currently, 14,511 people in Georgia have permission to possess ‘‘low THC oil,’’ officials of the state’s Department of Public Health said this week. That’s up from 8,402 about a year ago. THC is the psychoactive…
Consumers often have no idea about what they will pay for a medical procedure – or about the quality of care they can expect to receive. But under a bill discussed Monday in state Senate committee hearing, more Georgia patients with insurance could get access to such information. Senate Bill 303 is part of a…
At 3 years old, Sarah Davis was a typically rambunctious child. But one day when she leaped onto the family sofa and plopped into her favorite position, the maneuver resulted in a piercing pain that struck without warning. “We didn’t know what was wrong, we just knew she was in a lot of pain,” says…
The merger of insurers Centene and WellCare will create a company with a dominant position in Georgia’s managed care market for Medicaid. The $17 billion deal, which closed Thursday, will give the resulting entity roughly two-thirds of the Medicaid HMO business in the state. And that market power has medical providers worried about the company…
Gov. Brian Kemp’s tough budget plan spares two giant health care programs from cuts: Medicaid, and the Georgia health plan covering teachers and state employees. But in a Thursday hearing, state lawmakers were briefed on funding cuts in other state health programs, including behavioral health services and physician training programs. State agencies are tasked to meet Kemp’s directive to…
By Crysta Jones and Andy Miller Habersham County has a high uninsured rate, with 12 percent of its children lacking health coverage. The mountainous northeast Georgia county also has a low number of primary care physicians and mental health providers. For those reasons and others, a school-based telemedicine program would seem like a natural fit…
A Piedmont Healthcare joint venture has acquired nine more urgent care centers, expanding its network to 26, with another set to open this week. Piedmont Urgent Care by WellStreet has purchased Summit Urgent Care, a move that is just one sign of the explosive growth of urgent care as a convenient, walk-in choice for patients with…
A Georgia Senate study committee is recommending some changes in the state’s strict rules governing advanced practice nurses and physician assistants. But the panel reached a split vote Tuesday on two issues: authority to prescribe narcotics and authority to order imaging tests. It’s a sign that, as in past years, getting such changes through the…
This article is part of an occasional series on rural health care in Georgia. These articles are supported by a grant from the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation. Scott Bohlke is the only doctor practicing in Brooklet, a tiny town in southeastern Georgia. He has been working there for 21 years. “I didn’t do it…