James July-August 2025 web - Flipbook - Page 31
patients with 15,000 employees. With
this expansion, we’re confident in the
health policy,” he said.
PruittHealth, which operates
in Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland and
Tennessee, is also applying to be
certified for PACE (Program for All-inclusive Care for the Elderly) program.
(PACE participants, who have to be
55 years of age or older, do not pay
co-pays or deductibles for services or
medications, according to Medicare.)
“PACE home-based care will be
a capitated model that further lends
to our strengths. Currently, in the
state of Georgia, we service more
people in their homes than we do in
any of our healthcare centers. Also,
we’re excited over our Medicare
Advantage plan that brings traditional Medicare Advantage services
to patients in our healthcare centers
as well as our dual eligibles in the
community.”
Regarding Georgia’s state of
healthcare, Pruitt said the challenge
is keeping up with demand in a
state with a fast-growing population.
“We’ve made some progress with the
new medical school at the University of Georgia and the expansion
of the Georgia Southern campus of
the Medical College of Georgia. This
will greatly alleviate our physician
shortage,” he said. “We also faced an
extreme shortage of nurses, and several of the universities are expanding
nursing programs.
“It is a shame that the University
of Georgia is the only flagship university in the country that does not have
a nursing school. It would be great to
establish a program there that could
further alleviate the shortage. At
PruittHealth, our biggest issue is finding staff to service the patients we
need. We turn down patients every
day since there aren’t enough nurses.”
Pruitt also said the company has
shifted into the high-end senior living
market. “Our first major project is well
underway and it’s an over $350 million project, and the first phase sold
out six months earlier than expected.”
Funding & Over-regulation
There is wide consensus in
Georgia and around the country on
the issue of needed federal healthcare funding that could be reduced
by President Donald Trump or by the
Congress in their efforts to cut waste
and fraud.
“We are thankful for the Trump
administration in that they rescinded a minimum staffing mandate that
was unfunded,” Pruitt said. “But
there are still many Biden-era regulations that hamper our ability to deliver care. But we’re very confident
in the resilience of the economy not
only in Georgia but nationally, so
we’re not slowing down any of our
investment plans.”
Noggle added, “Some of the
biggest current challenges are
efforts at the federal level to limit
Medicaid financing programs that
enable hospitals to increase access
to high-quality care. We will continue to highlight the important work
of all our hospitals, but these reductions are especially risks to our
teaching, safety net and small rural
hospitals if implemented.”
For Union City’s mayor, getting
and funding a new hospital next
year is a big undertaking. “What’s
important is that the main goal is to
move toward a full hospital campus.
That’s going to take another year
or two,” Williams noted. “This will
address our immediate needs to
access, but when you think about
some of the challenges many of us
have in many of our communities,
it’s in-hospital care for things like
heart attacks or heart disease.”
“My prayer and my desire are
that this won’t be the only hospital
in south Fulton County or Union
City,” he concludes. “It’s an opportunity to build relationships and
build friendships but also to address
those healthcare deserts we’ve
been dealt.”
Everett Catts is a freelance writer who has previously worked as an editor for various Georgia
newspapers.
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