Overview: 2022 Fiscal Year Budget for the Department of Community Health
Gov. Brian Kemp proposed a 2022 budget of $3.48 billion in state general funds for the Department of Community Health. General funds for the agency increased by $430 million from the 2021 fiscal year, mostly to offset the expected loss of federal Medicaid matching funds and account for growth in Medicaid expenses.
Federal funding for the agency is $8.7 billion in the 2022 fiscal year that begins July 1, 2021. The proposed state budget also allots a total of $671 million from other state funds including nursing home and hospital provider fees and money from a tobacco industry legal settlement. This is a $28 million decrease in those funds compared to the 2021 budget year. The budget includes another $3.75 billion from the State Health Benefit Plan, which manages health insurance coverage for state employees, retirees and their dependents.
Georgia Law Blocks Families of Nursing Home Residents from Suing Over COVID Deaths February 2, 2021
A suburban Atlanta nursing home where 22 people died from COVID-19 has been faulted by state inspectors for failing to control infections, but relatives of people who died say they can’t sue because Georgia lawmakers last year blocked lawsuits unless plaintiffs can prove the difficult-to-meet standard of gross negligence.
WXIA-TV reports that multiple state reports faulted infection control at Westbury Nursing Home in Conyers, where at least 85 residents have been infected. That includes an October inspection where Georgia Department of Community Health inspectors found Westbury put residents in immediate jeopardy by keeping COVID-19 positive and negative residents in the same rooms, improperly performing COVID-19 tests, and failing to notify state officials.
By Beau Evans | Capitol Beat News Service Jan 30, 2021
Jan 30, 2021
ATLANTA â Medicaid enrollment in Georgia has hiked up during the COVID-19 pandemic, prompting some analysts to call for fully expanding coverage for the program that helps low-income families.
Others, however, back the partial Medicaid expansion Gov. Brian Kemp steered through the General Assembly two years ago that won federal approval last year.
The number of Medicaid beneficiaries in Georgia jumped by about 338,000 between March 2020 when the pandemic broke out and December, boosting the total number of children, adult and family recipients to roughly 2,104,000, according to state Department of Community Health (DCH) data.
Transit memorial, pen pals, White House doctor: News from around our 50 states From USA TODAY Network and wire reports, USA TODAY
Alabama
Birmingham: The Birmingham VA Health Care System is expanding its ability to vaccinate veterans against COVID-19, provided it can get enough doses. A partnership with the United Way of Central Alabama will allow the agency to provide as many as 1,000 shots a day beginning this week to veterans who are at least 65 years old, the VA said. That’s up from the current daily total of 300 people. The change comes because the VA’s vaccine clinic is moving into a United Way building in downtown Birmingham. Chief executive Stacy Vasquez said the system will schedule as many veterans as it can for shots, but obtaining additional vaccine is key. “Right now, I have enough vaccine to take care of 5,000 people next week. But then after that, unless I get another shipment, I don’t know,” Vasquez told WBRC-TV last week. The VA’s vacc