By Elliott Brack, editor and publisher, GwinnettForum | State Sen. Renee Unterman of Buford, who heads the Georgia Senate Health and Human Services Committee, may soon be writing legislation which could help hospitals, especially smaller hospitals within Georgia. She has changed her views on the subject, and now supports Medicaid expansion because of hospital closings in the state and because of problems that residents are having getting to see a doctor. She first stated these views in Modern Healthcare, a national magazine out of Washington, D.C.
In an effort to provide better healthcare to Georgia’s exploding population and as a way to balance the state’s budget, conservative lawmakers are renewing temporary Medicaid payment increases and looking at expanding the program, Sen. Unterman says. She says that while she’s been critical of Medicaid expansion, she’s seeing hospitals close and people waiting to see providers.
Unterman told GwinnettForum that she is not alone, and that she believes there is enough support in the Senate for a conservative expansion model, similar to the one in place in Arkansas.
She says that she is working with the Georgia Chamber of Commerce on how the state could create a different kind of waiver to help the hospitals, though not necessarily a full Medicaid expansion. “Now working with the Chamber, we are seeking to form a middle ground, and we’re looking at options. During the last two years, we have lost many primary care physicians. It is costing hundred of millions of dollars to prop up the system.”
Unterman
Senator Unterman also cites reports of hospitals cutting back on their employment levels. In recent weeks, two hospitals in Columbus cut their staffing. Columbus Regional Health Systems eliminated 219 positions in November. The hospital has reported operational losses in two recent years. Also in Columbus, St. Francis Hospital eliminated 65 positions, while Newton County Medical Center in Covington had staff cuts. Candler County Hospital in Metter last November eliminated 27 positions. Other reports, out of Georgia Southern University, show that more than half the hospitals in Georgia are operating at a deficit.
The Buford senator says that for the last two years, “When you look at the budget, for education and healthcare, we’ve have only dribs and drabs to run Georgia. How long can that continue? Why not receive the full reimbursement that other states are receiving? After all, something is better than nothing. Right now we are in a long black hole, while we don’t have enough family doctors and do have a restrictive practice of medicine.
“Other states are more lenient. We must do something.”
Sen. Unterman continues: “We also have problems in health care by not allowing physician’s assistants nor nurse practitioners to do much they can do. Doctors in Georgia have restrained these other professions. So, all this make the problems even worse.”
The senator says that there are a couple of pilot programs now underway including tele-medicine, and sending ambulances into the community, to take care of simple matters, such as checking high blood pressure, checking patient’s medicines, and seeing if patients need to be referred on for more care. “But pilot programs are not over and we have not instituted them around the state.”
She adds: “Many people don’t understand health care economics, and may be saying no-no-no. However, those who understand are realizing that something must be done!” She hopes to have hearings on her committee this fall prior to writing the budget to include wider services, to help the hospitals and health care in general in Georgia.
Ms. Lillian Webb, former Norcross mayor and for eight years chair of the Gwinnett County Commission, is recuperating at Gwinnett Extended Care in Lawrenceville after a fall in her home. She called the Fire Department, she says, “And they must have been waiting in my front yard, for they got here so quickly.” She anticipates coming home within about a week.
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