By Jonathan Shapiro

This past March, the Georgia Supreme Court ruled unanimously that limits on jury awards in medical malpractice cases are unconstitutional.

“The very existence of the caps, in any amount, is violative of the right to trial by jury,” wrote Chief Justice Carol Hunstein. “[The cap] clearly nullifies the jury’s findings of fact regarding damages and thereby undermines the jury’s basic function.”

The ruling effectively strikes down the centerpiece of Georgia’s sweeping 2005 tort reform law, Senate Bill 3, which capped noneconomic awards – including those for pain and suffering – at $350,000. Read more

(Atlanta, Ga. and Boston, Ma.) Many non-profit hospitals are not doing enough to let needy patients know about whether they qualify for hospital charity care programs and how to apply for assistance, according to a report released today by The Access Project and Community Catalyst in collaboration with Georgia Watch. Read more

[This originally appeared in Healthy Debate Georgia, the blog of consumer advocacy group Georgians for a Healthy Future.]

by Holly Lang

In a March ruling that could hold implications for all nonprofit hospitals, the Illinois Supreme Court stripped not-for-profit Provena Covenant Medical Center of its exemption from property tax, stating that the hospital did not provide enough charity care to justify that exemption.

A hospital earns its tax-exempt status through the benefits it provides to the community, the most of which being the free or reduced-cost care for those eligible for such assistance. Such care is deemed indigent or charity care. Read more

The following is a short film on Betty Nestlehutt. After receiving plastic surgery, Mrs. Nestlehutt, 72, was left with severe injuries to her face. Her ordeal and the botched procedure has caused Georgia’s arbitrary $350k cap on damages to come under fire at the GA Supreme Court. Warning: This film includes graphic images and may upset some viewers.

Rana Cash
Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The intravenous dye cost the hospital $14. The patient’s bill for it? Try $600.

“That’s more than a 4,000 percent markup. I think about that bill a lot,” said Holly Lang of Georgia Watch, a nonprofit consumer advocacy group…read more.

Heather Duncan
The Macon Telegraph

The Medical Center of Central Georgia is cutting hours, clinics and pharmacy offerings at its W.T. Anderson Health Center, which provides primary and specialty care to the poor…more.

A film placed —for the moment — out of harm’s way
5:01 pm July 12, 2009, by Jim Galloway

Georgia is on the verge of its very own Michael Moore moment. The question is whether that moment will be allowed to happen… Read the rest of this entry »

**Georgia Watch had no hand in the making of Do No Harm – we were sponsoring a screening of the film that has since been canceled by it’s producers due to unforeseen issues.

Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution
July 12, 2009, by Jim Galloway

Georgia is on the verge of its very own Michael Moore moment. The question is whether that moment will be allowed to happen.

In September 2003, fax machines owned by Albany’s business and political elite began spitting out a series of anonymous newsletters that detailed the inner workings of the nonprofit Phoebe Putney Health System — southwest Georgia’s largest hospital group…more

Almost 1.7 million Georgians have no health insurance. Most of the uninsured are part of working families, and two-thirds have incomes less than half of the federal poverty line. Many were among the 1.3 million working Americans who had lost health insurance the previous year. Others were surprised to find their health insurance depleted or their insurers refusing to approve needed procedures or medicines...more

WASHINGTON — As Washington considers overhauling the nation’s health care system, a new poll finds considerable concern about health costs, with nearly half of all Americans worried about paying for future care. Read the rest of this entry »

INDIANAPOLIS — Employers who offer health insurance coverage could see a 9 percent cost increase next year, and their workers may face an even bigger hit, according to a report from consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers. Read the rest of this entry »

As a physician, I see every day the type of overuse of medical care described in “Something’s Got to Give in Medicare Spending” (Economic View, June 14). Read the rest of this entry »

To the Odom family of Durham, N.C., Dr. Gloria M. Trujillo is a savior. Johnny Odom, at 57, has congestive heart failure, diabetes, kidney failure, high blood pressure, gout, high cholesterol and blindness in one eye. His daughter, Tonia, 35, has rheumatoid arthritis, and her 10-year-old son has asthma, a seizure disorder, high blood pressure, prediabetes and sleep apnea…more

Emory University said Monday that it is suspending its $1.5 billion medical expansion project, citing general uncertainty about the economy. Read the rest of this entry »

Health care reform is a big, nasty, complicated, sensitive subject. And everybody wants something different out of it. Read the rest of this entry »

Please check back for information on the rescheduling of Do No Harm, a documentary by Rebecca Schanberg that chronicles the actions of two whistle blowers at Phoebe Putney Hospital in Albany, Georgia who uncover inconsistent financial practices.

For more info on the film visit www.donoharmdoc.com or check out Georgia Watch’s 2008 report, A Crisis of Affordable Care: Phoebe Putney, which details our own findings on discrepancies at Phoebe Putney regarding over-charging and exorbitant executive compensation.