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State House committee looks at healthcare access as hospitals close

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Published  September 12, 2022 5:29pm EDT
Health Care
FOX 5 Atlanta

Georgia lawmakers look for ways to save hospitals from future closure around the state

In response to Wellstar's decision to close Atlanta Medical Center this November, Georgia lawmakers are debating ways to save the rest of the state's hospitals from a similar fate.

ATLANTA - State lawmakers hope to find ways to help address the problem of health care access across Georgia as yet another hospital is set to close its doors.

Earlier this month, Wellstar announced it would close Atlanta Medical Center, after shuttering AMC South this spring.

"It is an ongoing issue and it does need to be addressed," said state Rep. Darlene Taylor, R-Thomasville, who chairs the House Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Local Service Delivery.

The subcommittee met for more than three and a half hours Monday to discuss health care services in the state. The meeting was scheduled before the AMC announcement.

"We're talking about it right now because it's happening in Atlanta, but this has been happening in rural Georgia for years now," said state Rep. Mesha Mainor, D-Atlanta. "Rural Georgia has been telling us there is a problem."

According to Kaiser Health News, Georgia had eight rural hospitals close in just the last ten years.

"Most of them, until the Atlanta Medical Center, have been in the rural communities," said Rep. Thomas. "Population is going down, the manufacturing jobs left. It took with it those good health benefits that employers provided. So, it left it with a low-paying base, so you can't maintain it."

Healthcare professionals said the biggest problems they face are financial as many patients are uninsured and the pay for nurses and other health workers skyrocketed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Our payer mix is private insurance is around 28%. So, about a third of our business—less than a third of our business—has to support the losses in the other part of our business," explained Julie Windom with Atrium Health.

Atrium Health is a not-for-profit company that runs Floyd Medical Center in Rome and Navicent Health in Macon.

"We're just shutting down some of these hospitals and closing them up because they can't maintain 20 patients or 30 patients in there all the time, but you need that emergency room," said Dr. Dave Wringer.

Dr. Wringer is the CEO of Oconee Valley Healthcare, a Federally Qualified Health Center, which is a doctor’s office that gets federal support and offers a sliding fee scale for patients.

He said FQHCs and freestanding emergency rooms could help alleviate some of the pressure on Georgia's health system.

Rep. Taylor said she is hopeful the state can come up with some solutions and she and committee members will look at drafting legislation ahead of the upcoming 2023 session.