By Dr. Hugo Scornik As the organization that represents over 1,800 pediatricians and pediatric subspecialists in Georgia, our Georgia Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has watched with dismay the advance of several permissive gun bills in this year’s state legislative session. This is especially true of our brave pediatric emergency medicine and…
By Jack Bernard Many years ago, I had lunch with Dr. Uwe Reinhardt, a distinguished health care economist, who was a speaker at a national conference for hospital CEOs put on by the organization employing me. In a good-humored way, he made clear to me that the United States did not have the best health…
By Kathryn Lawler, Tom Andrews and Shannon Sale A patient at an Atlanta clinic regularly attended doctor’s appointments to monitor his diabetes, but he didn’t see any improvement. In fact, sometimes his A1c score was higher than on his previous visit. Given the way health care problems are often addressed, a provider would almost immediately begin to look…
By Jonathon Green, CEO, Taylor Healthcare Group, with Michael Azzolin, CEO, PharmD on Demand Rural hospitals across Georgia operate on razor-thin margins, providing a necessary service to communities in need. Due to financial issues, several rural Georgia hospitals have closed over the past decade, forcing those in need of care to travel greater distances for health care….
By Zach Walston Specialty care providers in Georgia have worked tirelessly through the pandemic to ensure their patients have maintained access to vital care, including physical, occupational, and speech therapy. However, steep payment cuts proposed by the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) threaten patient access to quality care –– worrying patients, providers,…
As a longtime observer of Georgia’s health care system, I try to keep up with reports about problems our state faces, including low rankings in some categories, and pass the information along to general readers. A report by Sidney Wolfe, M.D., of the nonprofit Public Citizen organization, details how the medical boards of each state oversee…
By Dr. Harry J. Heiman Our current crisis was not inevitable. Eighteen months ago we faced the collective challenge of a global pandemic the likes of which we had never seen. This required a tremendous learning curve in the understanding and response by a public health workforce that had been chronically underfunded and understaffed. Against…
By Dr. Ericka Russell-Petty We, the doctors of the Georgia State Medical Association, want to express our alarm and concern over the current surge of the Covid-19 pandemic. The data over the course of the pandemic have documented that African Americans are disproportionately impacted by Covid-19, have excess negative health consequences, more hospitalizations, and are more likely to…
By Dr. David Satcher Race has long been a key determinant of public health in this country, and as U.S. Surgeon General under President Bill Clinton, I saw those disparities – and worse outcomes for Black Americans – every day. In 1998, I released the first Surgeon General’s report on “Tobacco Use Among U.S. Racial/Ethnic Minority Groups,”…
By Jack Bernard and Dr. Doug Skelton The results are in for all of America to see, and Georgia has finally made it . . . to very near the bottom of the pile. Shameful, but true. Georgia has a booming economy and is one of the fastest-growing states in the nation. Possibly, this is…