Gov. Nathan Deal vetoed legislation Tuesday that would have created a state health policy director and a council to develop a “strategic vision’’ for Georgia health care. In his veto message, Deal said Senate Bill 357, “while well-intentioned, creates several unnecessary additional levels of government.’’ The legislation was backed by key Republican senators on health care issues,…
The first four-year medical school established in South Georgia aims to address the primary care physician shortages in underserved areas of the state. The Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine last week broke ground in Moultrie for its medical school there. PCOM already has a campus in suburban Atlanta, and it hopes to start admitting med…
Ed Scarborough worked as a sandblaster in the granite industry for 20 years, until his health gave out. He says he knew that getting into such a line of work was risky, but in Elberton, “there really isn’t much else.” He was born and raised in Elberton, a historic northeast Georgia town known as the…
If, as expected, Georgia House leaders sit down this summer to study the state’s health care regulatory process, they may want to look at what’s happening – or not happening — in southwest Georgia. Lee County has sought to build a new $120 million hospital to compete with what local leaders call a ‘‘monopoly’’ by…
Georgia’s preparedness for managing health emergencies is improving but still lags behind the national average, according to a newly released report. The state scored a 6.8 on a 10-point scale for preparedness, in an index that shows the ability to protect Americans’ health from incidents such as newly emerging infectious diseases; an increase in resistance…
Piedmont Healthcare isn’t the only entity battling Georgia’s biggest health insurer over reimbursement rates. Companies that supply medical equipment to home care patients say they have seen double-digit percentage rate reductions from the insurer, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia. MRS Homecare, based in Albany, says it faces a 17 percent to 33 percent…
A new ranking of the healthiest U.S. communities puts eight Georgia counties in the top 500, with the highest being Forsyth County, at No. 82. U.S. News & World Report, in collaboration with the Aetna Foundation, released the list Monday, evaluating communities by factors including population health, education, economy, and food and nutrition. The city of…
The Marcus Foundation has donated $15 million to create a network for stroke care to help reduce disability and death from the disease in the Southeast. A wide swath of the South is known as the Stroke Belt, due to the 11-state region’s unusually high incidence of strokes and other forms of cardiovascular disease. The Marcus Stroke Network…
A legislative proposal that has passed the Georgia House would intertwine hospital finances and individuals’ income tax returns. House Bill 81, sponsored by Rep. Tom McCall, an Elberton Republican, would allow public hospitals to seize patients’ income tax returns over unpaid medical bills. The debt would have to be at least $25 for the hospital…
When President Barack Obama and Congress rammed through the Affordable Care Act eight years ago this month, it was adopted on the premise of bringing down health insurance costs for all Americans. But in reality, this plan, also known as “Obamacare,” transferred much of the skyrocketing cost of health care from providers and insurers to…