By Harris Allen In 2018, Site Selection magazine named Georgia the top state for business for the sixth year in a row. As before, however, the criteria used in the ranking did not include population health. That same year, America’s Health Rankings placed Georgia’s health in the bottom 20th percentile (39th), where it has been…
Every day, at least nine Americans die and 100 are injured in distracted-driving crashes. This is an epidemic, and one that can be ended. Wilber Last year, the Medical Association of Atlanta joined with a coalition of advocates to fight this epidemic. The coalition included physicians across the state, as well as loved ones of…
This Commentary is written by Jack Bernard and Dr. William Elsea The following statistic shocked us, even as jaded as we may be: The U.S. 2014 infant mortality rate was 70 percent higher than that of other wealthy nations, all of which have national health care. It also indicated that American children had a 57 percent…
This Commentary is written by Sarah Blake and Andrea Swartzendruber For nearly 50 years, Title X, the national family planning program, has provided millions of low-income and uninsured people access to high-quality health care in line with national medical and ethical practice standards. This important program has helped health providers, like public health departments and…
This Commentary is written by Jean Moody-Williams, regional CMS administrator Leveraging community partnerships and critical data is one of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ key strategies to help tailor prevention and treatment efforts to combat the opioid crisis, particularly in rural communities. With that aim, CMS launched an expanded version of the Opioid Prescribing…
Perhaps the biggest health care battle of our lifetime exploded almost a decade ago when Congress rammed through Obamacare. As a result, patient choices have been limited while the cost of health care skyrocketed. What consumers have cried for since then is not only some sanity in the cost of health care, but fewer restrictions…
There are many good reasons why Georgia, like most other states in this country, has rejected decades of efforts by cream-skimming profit-seekers to repeal certificate-of-need laws. CON laws strike a balance between improving access to care, recognizing that a “free-market” system won’t work because hospitals must legally and ethically take all patients (regardless of their…
In his recent State of the Union address, President Trump pointed out that although progress is being made on a variety of health care issues, health care costs are just too expensive for the average American. One reason is this: Hospitals are the most expensive delivery point in the health care system, and ironically, an…
This Commentary is written by Dr. Michael Lindsay and Dr. Jane Ellis of Emory University School of Medicine A recent article in a local publication was headlined “Georgia maternal death rate, once ranked worst in the U.S., worse now.” While the problem of maternal mortality is very real – and is of particular concern to…
This Commentary is written by Helen Baker, Priscilla Hall and Jennifer Vanderlaan As of July 1, 2018, people in rural counties in Georgia can receive local hospital services through micro-hospitals. Although these 24-hour emergency units with less than 10 inpatient beds will help improve access to many types of care for the 17 percent of…