"Health & Medical News"

Georgia physicians and hospitals are wrangling over a rule change that paves the way for general surgeons to establish ambulatory surgery centers without going through the certificate-of-need process.

The state’s Dept. of Community Health in December 2007 unanimously approved a rule that reclassifies general surgery as a single specialty rather than a multispecialty. It amends related certificate-of-need requirements for physician-owned ambulatory surgery facilities. Georgia law exempts surgery centers focusing on a single specialty, such as orthopedics or obstetrics and gynecology, from demonstrating need.

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The University of Georgia’s Center for Research on Behavioral Health and Human Services Delivery is using $9 million in federal and private grants to improve addiction treatment, Medical News Today reported Jan. 5.

“We have treatments that work, and we have people who want treatment,” said center director Paul Roman. “The problem now is getting treatment providers to adopt new, promising practices so that substance abusers can get the best treatment available.”

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Locking up a swelling cadre of methamphetamine users and dealers has given Georgia the fastest-growing prison population in the U.S., according to state prison officials.

The Moultrie Observer reported Oct. 23 that Georgia Department of Corrections Commissioner James Donald said that the prison system is now operating at 105 percent of capacity. “We know exactly where our population is coming from,” he said. “We’ve taken in 250 to 300 meth-related criminals each month, almost 3,000 a year. Ninety-seven percent of them are white, by the way … That’s really crowding us in our jails.”

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