Patient advocacy groups, patients and healthcare providers are praising Tennessee lawmakers and Governor Bill Lee for a bill to reform an insurance practice known as “step therapy.” The law will help patients access the prescription medications prescribed by their doctors without interference from the patient’s insurance company. The bill passed the House 92 – 0, with one present ... (click for more)

Orange Grove Center announced that Gail Walker, a staff member of over 33 years and now part-time consultant, has been granted Interviewer Certification in the Personal Outcome Measure s by the Center on Quality and Leadership (CQL). The Personal Outcome Measures, bolstered by Interviewer Certification, is a person-centered discovery process that helps organizations find out what ... (click for more)

A woman charged in the stabbing death of 60-year-old George Deramus pleaded guilty on Monday morning to the lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter. Tavowia Hinton, who was 49 at the time of the Dec. 2, 2018, incident, had been facing a charge of second-degree murder. She was given a six-year prison sentence, but it was suspended. Ms. Hinton was directed not to have any contact ... (click for more)

A Florida man has filed suit in Federal Court, saying he had a deal to buy 6,160 acres in Hamilton and Sequatchie counties from Bryan and Cartter Patten, but they are backing out of the deal. C. Lee Eggert, of Brandon, Fla., said the agreed purchase price was over $11.6 million. He acknowledged that he was being furnished the money by a logging company, Consolidated Timberlands. ... (click for more)

I find the complaints about the recent win by Weston Wamp in the Hamilton County mayor’s primary to be interesting and amusing. Interesting because of the attempt by some to portray his win as the result of some kind of nefarious manipulation by a group of clergy to get Black voters to crossover and vote for Wamp. Also interesting because for weeks it was assumed by the local political ... (click for more)

I have written dozens of obituaries in my life and eulogized many people. I am not ashamed to admit I think I am good at it and I am flattered when a friend’s family approaches me to ask for my help. I have written a number of obituaries on those who are still alive who want to “proof-read” what will be turned into the funeral home and I have honored death-bed requests that this ... (click for more)