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Patients Still Searching For New Doctors Nearly 1 Year After Wellstar Atlanta Medical Center Closes
South Fulton patients forced to find new doctorsNearly ten months ago, Georgia's second largest hospital, Wellstar Atlanta Medical Center, shut its doors for good. Wellstar Health System's CEO says they had no choice but to close after losing more than $100 million in the 12 months before the shutdown. The move left thousands of patients without a medical home. FOX 5's Medical Team took at look at how those patients are fending for themselves.
ATLANTA - Checking to make sure she has found the right rideshare driver, Brenda Black, who does not drive, climbs in and heads off to see her knee doctor -- about 15-minute ride from Black's home in Atlanta's Old Fourth Ward to south Buckhead.
For years, if the 71-year-old retired bank teller needed to see her doctors, all she had to do was walk about 10 minutes to their offices in the buildings around Wellstar Atlanta Medical Center, Georgia's second-largest hospital.
That was until last fall when Wellstar Health System announced it was closing the hospital after the health system reported losing $107 million in the last 12 months it was in operation.
Wellstar Atlanta Medical Center Downtown in Atlanta (FOX 5).
Black says she was surprised.
"I heard about it on the news," she said. "No one told me about it at any doctor's office or anything."
At first, Black says she was not overly concerned.
"I thought just the hospital was closing."
CLOSURE OF WELLSTAR ATLANTA MEDICAL PUTS PRESSURE ON AREA EMERGENCY DEPARTMENTS
Then she learned her primary care doctor was moving to Sandy Springs, another to Buckhead.
"I was thinking about, 'What am I going to do,'" Black said. "I have to get everything reset, you know, find different doctors.'"
Black decided to follow Dr. Courtney Shelton, an internist helping manage her knee pain, to his new office on Peachtree Road near Piedmont Hospital.
"It takes a little more time," she says. "It's not as convenient as, you know, 10 minutes away, right up the block."
Daphne Boyd faces an even longer drive to get to her cardiologist, who relocated from the area around AMC to Austell, where Wellstar Health System has a medical hub.
Now when she needs a checkup or labs, getting to her doctor takes time.
"It almost means taking the whole day off from work to do that," Boyd said
Boyd lives in Stone Mountain, about 35 miles from Austell, and says a recent trip for a checkup and labs took most of the day.
"I left my home at 11 a.M. And I had a 1 p.M. Appointment," she told FOX 5. "I left my appointment at 4:30 p.M., and I did not get home until 7:30 p.M. The traffic going and coming was a problem. I was worn out!"
The closing of another Wellstar hospital, AMC South in East Point in early 2022, left South Fulton County's 234,000 residents without a full-service medical center.
Morehouse School of Medicine (Supplied)
A study released in April 2023 by Fulton County and Morehouse School of Medicine found, while Atlanta (with is Central Fulton) and North Fulton have hundreds of specialists, South Fulton has few specialty providers.
The researchers found South Fulton has no cardiologists, pulmonologists, or infectious disease specialists, only two oncologists, six neonatologists and just 30 mental health providers, a tenth of the mental health providers North Fulton has.
Dr. Kelley Carroll, chief ambulatory officer for Grady Health System, says the need for health providers south of Interstate 20 is huge.
"There's so much need in these zip codes, or so many people who do not have access to a primary care doctor, who don't have access to certain specialty services, that this is just the first step in narrowing that gap," Dr. Kelley says.
Dr. Kelley Carroll says Grady will soon open two new community-based primary care clinics, including the Grady Cascade Outpatient Center in Southwest Atlanta once operated by Wellstar. The other center will open later this year in West End.
The Cascade clinic will open in phases, according to Kelley.
"We'll have three doctors here, two nurses, one nurse practitioner and two doctors," she said. "Then, we'll open up another section of it and add more specialists."
With support from Fulton County, Morehouse School of Medicine is also reopening a primary care clinic on the Southside, at the Buggy Works Office Park off Cleveland Avenue.
The goal is to take some of the pressure off Atlanta's crowded ER's where wait times are long and growing.
"So many patients come to our hospital emergency rooms because they just need to have their health care needs met," Dr. Kelley said. "Unfortunately, if patients don't get those primary care needs met, they may end up with diabetic coma amputations, heart attacks and strokes, and that's what we're trying to prevent with these centers."
Daphne Boyd has been searching for a new Emory primary care doctor since March when hers retired.
She says the Emory providers she has reached out to are not taking new patients.
"I was informed that the reason why a lot of these physicians aren't accepting new patients is because of the closure of Wellstar (AMC)," Boyd said. "Some of those patients were transferred to the Emory providers."
Brenda Black hasn't seen a primary care provider for almost a year.
"So, right now I'm at the crunch, you know," Black said. "I'm looking and then hopefully within a week I should choose one and have an appointment set up."
Black just hopes her new medical home, will not feel so far away from her Atlanta apartment.
Dental Dilemma
Arline Morris' teeth are failing fast. She can't eat much, and struggles daily with constant pain while taking medication that makes her teeth even more fragile.
She's been offered appointments at Omaha and Lincoln dental clinics that will accept her Medicaid insurance. But Arline lives in Stratton, in southwest Nebraska — more than 200 miles from the nearest dentist who will take her.
It's an eight hour round trip, plus hours of dental work, and that's all but impossible for Arline. A long car ride can leave her suffering in bed for days. Medicaid doesn't cover an overnight stay for traveling patients.
John Morris, Arline's husband and sole caretaker, spends his days calling around for help, working around the spotty cell phone signal at their home. He's talked to more than 50 dentists' offices, with no luck.
People are also reading…"Either you hurt with your teeth, or you hurt for several days in your bed and you can't move or eat," John Morris said.
Each year, fewer dentists can afford to treat Nebraska's Medicaid patients. In the past five years, the total number of dental providers reimbursed after treating at least one Medicaid-eligible patient dropped by 37%.
The problem is especially pronounced in western Nebraska. Only two dozen dentists west of Kearney have been paid for treating a Medicaid patient this year.
Forty-three Nebraska counties, many in the state's western half, have zero dentists helping low-income Nebraskans like Arline Morris.
John Morris says he's been searching for about a year and a half for a provider who will treat Arline near home.
Within a 90-mile radius of the Morrises, only three dentists' offices are listed as accepting new Medicaid patients. One is a pediatric practice. The other two are separate small offices for one dentist.
Arline needs all her teeth extracted and dentures fitted, major work that her last dentist couldn't perform out of her satellite office in Paxton.
That dentist has since stopped taking new Medicaid patients, John Morris said, because the office was "overwhelmed" with a waitlist stretching past 100 patients.
Then, on Aug. 1, the Paxton office closed, leaving the Medicaid patients of western Nebraska with one fewer option.
In 2017, nearly 600 dental providers treated at least one Nebraska Medicaid patient, according to reimbursement records from Nebraska's Department of Health and Human Services.
By 2022, that number had fallen to 378.
Why? Because it doesn't pay.
State government reimbursements for this dental work have fallen "far below market levels," said Dr. Jessica Meeske of Hastings. They fail to cover the overhead costs of most procedures, leading to what Meeske calls a "crisis level" with large numbers of patients unable to get care.
Meeske, a pediatric dentist at Pediatric Dental Specialists of Greater Nebraska, said her clinic turns away 15 families a day because they are "overloaded and booked out."
There's a practice in North Platte, Meeske said, but it's also impossible for the pediatric dentists there to meet the community's needs.
"We're hearing multiple reports that patient families from western Nebraska are having to go all the way to Lincoln for dental care," Meeske said.
The urgent calls, five or six per day, come to Kim Danehey-Nibbe at Central Community College's dental hygiene program. Medicaid patients are on the line, often in serious pain.
Central Community College is one of only three providers listed as accepting new Medicaid patients in Hastings.
"A lot of the comments I'll get is, you're probably the 40th place I've called, and nobody's taking," said Danehey-Nibbe, the college's clinic assistant.
Nebraska's Medicaid reimbursement fees are far below the rates of private insurance and lower than most surrounding states' Medicaid programs.
The state's Medicaid program picked up the tab for 39% of the cost of dental procedures on average, according to Nebraska Dental Association estimates from its 2021 survey.
A combination of factors including rising labor and supply costs and an influx of patients due to Medicaid expansion have made it tougher for dentists to manage the financial losses, Meeske said.
"Grocery stores don't sell food for 40% of their price to SNAP customers. Why is health care partially financed by the professionals providing the service?" said David O'Doherty, executive director of the Nebraska Dental Association, in an email.
The relative value of Medicaid services are assessed every year by the federal Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Then, Nebraska's Medicaid program, run by DHHS, sets its rates to fit the assessment and budget allocated by the Nebraska Legislature.
"As a public service, funded by the state, those rates are limited by the appropriation from the Legislature," said Collin Spilinek, a DHHS spokesperson, in a statement. "As a result, there is only so much that Medicaid can do to address this concern directly."
The Nebraska Legislature has made some attempts to improve the situation for dentists, and did boost all Medicaid reimbursement rates by 3% this year — though that increase was far below what dentists say they need.
Gov. Jim Pillen issued a line-item veto to the 2023-2025 budget, holding the rates stagnant for 2024.
Meanwhile, John Morris keeps an eye on local Facebook pages for posts about dentists. People are constantly asking if anyone knows of an office accepting new Medicaid patients near North Platte or McCook. There are rarely answers.
"People can't stay in business if they're losing money every time they make a transaction," Morris said.
Alison McAleese-Reents went to sleep on Dec. 23, 2020, with her jaw hurting. By morning, the side of her face had swelled like a balloon.
She went to Hastings Convenient Care first. The nurse sent her straight to the hospital.
"My friend sent me in with her phone number pinned to my shirt because I was pretty out of it," McAleese-Reents said. "I didn't realize how bad it was."
She was immediately wheeled into emergency surgery at Hastings' Mary Lanning hospital. An infection had spread from one bad tooth into her jawbone. Her surgeon decided to remove all 32 teeth.
When she woke up on Christmas Eve, her mouth was empty, and her life permanently changed.
"I can't even tell you what that was like to wake up to," McAleese-Reents said. "Because you're groggy and I was like, 'what's going on?' And then I start feeling around my mouth like 'whoa, whoa, what's this about?' I thought they got the wrong patient at first."
McAleese-Reents has long lacked adequate dental care, she said, because options for Medicaid patients are limited near Hastings. Before she qualified for Medicaid, McAleese-Reents was self-employed and couldn't afford dental insurance.
"You can't afford to go, and then when you qualify for Medicaid, there's nowhere to go," she said.
Patients who can't get regular dental care often rush to emergency rooms when their pain becomes severe. Some 79% of those visits would be more appropriately treated in an outpatient office, said Kelsey Arends, a health care access attorney for Nebraska Appleseed.
Preventive, consistent dental care costs far less than ER treatment, Arends said — making it less burdensome on Medicaid and American taxpayers. In-office care has other benefits, she said. There are fewer invasive oral surgeries. Fewer Nebraskans get prescribed opioids.
When McAleese-Reents awoke with no teeth on Christmas Eve, she immediately worried about what would come next.
"How am I going to pay for dentures?" McAleese-Reents said.
Nebraska's Medicaid adult dental benefits are capped at $750 per year. She worried that she wouldn't have anything left for other dental care, including dentures.
McAleese-Reents was lucky, though. Her care team at Mary Lanning Memorial Hospital contacted Smile Dental Group, who donated high-quality dentures and fitting appointments, she said.
"The dentures usually for Medicaid are cheaper and they're very thick," McAleese-Reents said. "When I look at mine, I'm just blown away."
In January, the annual $750 benefits cap will be removed, alongside other changes to the structure of Medicaid's dental coverage.
"We feel that this change will allow our members to receive needed care in a timely fashion and will allow appropriate compensation to the dentists with a reduced administrative burden," Spilinek said in an email.
Nebraska Medicaid is also changing reimbursements for dentures and wisdom teeth extraction to pay dentists for each step of treatment. Providers are optimistic that the changes will help more Nebraskans get dental care.
"I think it will open up a lot of doors to provide more consistent treatment," Arends said. "Then it can get folks into a place where they're in more maintenance instead of, you know, expensive, initial treatment."
When open enrollment begins in November, patients will have a choice between three managed care organizations, with dental coverage integrated into the new plans.
This may help divert patients from emergency departments to community-based dentists or public health clinics – places more likely to address a dental issue's root cause, Meeske said.
Patients want the new setup to make it easier to find dentists accepting new Medicaid patients. They are hoping it cuts down their pointless phone calls.
John Morris has a helpful conversation with a dentist's receptionist every so often, and grows hopeful that he will find someone near Stratton to relieve Arline's pain.
But that hope then runs headlong into reality. When he calls back, the person who picks up usually knows nothing about the previous conversation, and can't help.
Starting over with each call is wearing on him, Morris said. Repeatedly asking for help is frustrating and embarrassing.
Recently, Morris called DHHS while sitting with his wife in their home 200 miles from Lincoln. He said the employee who answered repeatedly yawned into the phone.
"Everybody wants to feel like they're the only person that matters when somebody's talking to them, but obviously that just isn't possible," Morris said. "It's just hard. You don't know where to turn, it's hard to get answers."
The Flatwater Free Press is Nebraska's first independent, nonprofit newsroom focused on investigations and feature stories that matter.
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Physical Therapy Near Me Launches In North Carolina To Help Patients Find The Right Care For Their Injury Or Chronic Condition
A new online directory, Physical Therapy Near Me, has launched in North Carolina to help patients across the state find the right physical therapist near them for their injury or chronic condition. The directory lists the top-rated physical therapists in North Carolina, and it allows patients to search by location, insurance, and specialty.
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The directory includes a variety of features to help patients find the right physical therapist, including:
A search function that allows patients to search by location, insurance, and specialty
Profile pages for each physical therapist and their PT practice, which includes information about the their experience, education, specialties, certifications, their PT practice, insurance accepted, booking links and hours of operation
Patient reviews, which allow patients to share their experiences on physical therapists and their PT practice
"We believe that Physical Therapy Near Me is the most comprehensive and user-friendly online directory for physical therapy in North Carolina," said Witmer. "We are confident that it will help patients find the right care and get the healing they need."
Physical Therapy Near Me also has tremendous benefits to Physical Therapists looking to grow their PT practices. Therapists who join the directory benefit from getting increased visibility online and attracting new patients near their practice. "90% of Physical Therapists who join our directory receive 3-5 new patient leads in the first 30 days." said Witmer.
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Physical Therapy Near Me will be launching soon in the broader mid-atlantic states and plans to be live and available to the entire US by the end of the year.
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Physical Therapy Near Me is the #1 online directory for helping patients find the right physical therapist near them for their injury or chronic condition. The directory lists hundreds of physical therapy practices all across North Carolina, and it allows patients to search by location, insurance, and specialty.
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Media ContactCompany Name: Bullzeye MediaContact Person: SarahEmail: Send EmailPhone: 9733698052City: CaryState: North CarolinaCountry: United StatesWebsite: https://www.Physicaltherapynearme.Co/
Press Release Distributed by ABNewswire.Com To view the original version on ABNewswire visit: Physical Therapy Near Me Launches in North Carolina to Help Patients Find the Right Care for Their Injury or Chronic Condition
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