Healthcare Analytics for Georgia Hospitals and Clinics

Georgia's 165+ acute care hospitals serve a state where geographic and racial health disparities are among the most pronounced in the Southeast. Emory Healthcare (11 hospitals, anchored by one of the top academic medical centers in the South), Piedmont Healthcare (22+ hospitals across Georgia), Wellstar Health System (11 hospitals), Augusta University Health, and Navicent Health (now part of Atrium Health) collectively provide the backbone of Georgia's health system — but they are concentrated in the Atlanta metropolitan area and a handful of other mid-sized cities. Rural Georgia, particularly in the Black Belt counties of Southwest Georgia and the coastal plain, has been losing hospitals at an accelerating rate: nine rural hospitals have closed since 2010, and dozens more operate on financially precarious margins.

Georgia's decision to implement only a partial Medicaid expansion — Georgia Pathways, launched in 2023 with a work requirement — means the state retains one of the highest uninsured rates in the Southeast at 11.3%. This limits the DSH funding model that rural hospitals depend on and creates a coverage gap that generates high volumes of uncompensated ER care. Georgia's maternal mortality crisis — disproportionately affecting Black women in both urban and rural settings — represents a data challenge as much as a clinical one: hospitals need analytics that can identify obstetric patients at elevated risk before delivery complications become maternal deaths.

Georgia Medicaid — administered by the Department of Community Health (DCH) — operates through managed care organizations including Anthem (Amerigroup), UnitedHealthcare, Ambetter from Peach State Health Management (Centene), and CareSource. Georgia's Pathways to Coverage program, launched in 2023, covers adults aged 19-64 who meet work requirement criteria — a relatively small expansion population compared to full Medicaid expansion states, but one that introduces new eligibility verification analytics obligations for providers.

Georgia DCH requires MCOs and contracted providers to report HEDIS quality measures, including prenatal care initiation, postpartum care, and well-child visit rates — measures directly relevant to the state's maternal and infant health challenges. Georgia hospitals also participate in CMS's HRRP penalty program, with pneumonia and CHF readmissions among the primary penalty drivers given the state's population demographics. The Georgia Hospital Association's quality reporting programs feed state public reporting benchmarks that influence payer contracting conversations.