FEBRUARY 15, 2018
Patients getting stuck with big bills after ER visits (quotes MAG CEO)
Consumer Reports
Here’s how to fight back when your insurance company doesn’t think you should have gone to the emergency room. | READ MORE
Bill would expand rural nurses' role (quotes MAG government relations associate)
Valdosta Daily Times
The high number of diabetic patients walking through the door overwhelmed Janie McGhin, a nurse practitioner in South Georgia. | READ MORE
[Georgia] House panel weighs legislation to ease access to vital medications (mentions MAG)
Georgia Health News
Brannen Whirledge was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis, an inflammatory bowel disease, two years ago at age 4. | READ MORE
Physicians have plenty of tools to help grow advocacy grassroots (features MAG)
AMA Wire
The "Surprise Billing and Consumer Protection Act" had passed the Georgia state Senate and was being considered by the House. Rather than address the problems caused by physicians being dropped from insurance company narrow networks, the measure went on the offensive against out-of-network physicians who were “surprising” patients with bills that weren’t covered by their insurance plan. | READ MORE
The flu season in Georgia will probably get worse. Here is why.
11 Alive
More than 60 people have already died from flu-related complications in Georgia. At least two of those people were children. Forty-nine of those people were over the age of 65. | READ MORE
In rural Georgia, telemedicine provides new option for children’s mental health
The Gainesville Times
In more than half of Georgia counties, parents can’t find nearby mental health services for their children. | READ MORE
Breastfeeding advocates: 2016 Georgia licensure law a first of many steps (features MAG Alliance member)
WABE
When the “Georgia Lactation Consultant Practice Act” took effect in July 2016, the state became only the second in the nation to license professional breastfeeding specialists. | READ MORE
Athens-Clarke, Oconee suing opioid companies
Athens Banner Herald
Athens-Clarke and Oconee counties have joined a growing number of other governments and hospital authorities across the country in a multi-state federal lawsuit targeting makers and distributors of opioid drugs. | READ MORE
Georgia down slightly in ‘well-being’ survey
Georgia Health News
Georgia dropped from 29th to 31st in a measurement that reflects how people feel about and experience their daily lives. | READ MORE
Coliseum resident elected as vice chair of MAG’s Resident and Fellow Section 
Middle Georgia CEO
Brandon Kirshner M.D., M.P.H., Internal Medicine Resident at Coliseum Medical Center, was recently elected as Vice-chair of the Resident and Fellow section of the Medical Association of Georgia.  The elections were made during the MAG House of Delegates annual meeting in Savannah.  | READ MORE
Newton County, hospital come to terms over EMS, dispatch fees
The Citizens
Newton County commissioners last week ratified an intergovernmental agreement between the county and Piedmont Newton Hospital and the Hospital Authority for the provision of emergency medical services in the county. The approval was part of the BOC’s Feb. 6 consent agenda. | READ MORE
Man says hospital went after car crash settlement instead of billing insurance
WSB-TV
Channel 2 investigates dug into why accident victims might be treated differently at a hospital, even when they have the same health insurance. | READ MORE
Correction: The header that read “[Mercer SOM President/Dean] Opinion: Medicine’s promise still not reaching many” in last week’s edition of the Georgia Pulse report should have read “[Morehouse] SOM President/Dean] Opinion: Medicine’s promise still not reaching many.” The editorial staff regrets the error. 
Advertise with MAG: Please contact Tom Kornegay at 678.303.9260 or tkornegay@mag.org if you are interested in running an ad in the Georgia Pulse, which is a weekly compilation of media reports that are related to health care and the medical profession. It is sent to more than 6,000 physicians in Georgia.
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Medical Association of Georgia
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