The Georgia General Assembly this week took a major step toward creating a certification program for the state’s community health workers, who work with hospitals and nonprofits to help people navigate the health care system and find needed resources.
The bill got a crucial “yes” vote on Thursday night just hours before the legislature’s deadline for the Senate and the House to approve a bill – the “Crossover Day” deadline – for it to continue to the other chamber.
Rep. Darlene Taylor, R-Thomasville, sponsored the community health worker bill, which passed nearly unanimously in the House Thursday. The measure must now obtain approval from the Senate.
“It’s going to help our underserved and rural areas,” Taylor said on the House floor Thursday night. “It’s going to be very beneficial for maternal care and even our mental health.”
Community health workers are not certified medical professionals; instead, they focus on helping guide people through the health care system.
Taylor said the workers can help relieve the strain on medical professionals and ensure that Georgians have the care they need.
A certification for the profession would regularize training for these workers and could be a “a game-changer for workforce development,” Natasha Taylor, deputy director of Georgia Watch, a nonprofit consumer advocacy group, told Healthbeat earlier this year.
Currently, Emory University, Morehouse School of Medicine, and the Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH) offer community health worker training.
DPH would administer the certification program. The bill must now obtain Senate approval prior to the final day of the legislative session April 4.
Bills that would promote gun safety through a tax credit and increase Medicaid coverage of stop-smoking treatments moved ahead prior to the crossover deadline, giving them a shot at final passage before the end of session.
Others, like proposals to require schools to provide information about vaccines for teenagers and make it easier for foreign doctors to practice in Georgia, have stalled out for the moment. Such language, though, can still be attached to legislation that remains alive.
Vaccine information bill falters
A separate measure from Taylor, centering on vaccine information, gained committee approval but failed to get a vote on the House floor by Thursday night’s deadline.
The bill would have required schools to provide parents of students entering the 7th grade with information about meningitis, HPV, and tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis (TDAP).
Lawmakers discuss Maternal Mortality Review Committee
The Georgia Maternal Mortality Review Committee was disbanded last fall after ProPublica obtained internal reports about women who died from pregnancy- and abortion-related complications.
The committee has now been reconstituted, and ProPublica this week reported that the Georgia Department of Public Health refuses to release a list of the names of the members.
A bill sponsored by Democratic Rep. Viola Davis of Stone Mountain would compel the public health agency to release the names; however, the bill failed to get a committee hearing.
In contrast, Rep. Sharon Cooper of Marietta, the Republican chairperson of the House’s Public and Community Health committee, has been able to move ahead a bill focused on the maternal mortality issue.
House Bill 89 specifies that psychiatric records of deceased patients can be released to the Maternal Mortality Review Committee, with some exceptions for privileged materials.
“We have had a problem when a mother has died after a delivery that getting psychiatric information about them. People and physicians and hospitals have been very reluctant to give us that information,” Cooper said when speaking about the bill in the House vote earlier this week.
The bill also establishes a Regional Perinatal Center Advisory Committee to make recommendations about these centers, which ensure high-risk pregnancies can access the correct level of care and that patients can be transported to higher levels of care as needed.
The bill has now been referred to the Senate Health and Human Services committee, which is scheduled to hear it next week.
Gun safety tax credit advances
A package of bills aimed at improving gun safety sponsored by anesthesiologist Rep. Michelle Au, D-Johns Creek, has failed to move ahead.
But one of Au’s proposals for a safe gun storage tax credit was pushed successfully by Rep. Mark Newton, R-Augusta, an emergency room doctor.
House Bill 79 breezed through the House with only eight “no” votes. The measure would provide taxpayers who purchase a secure storage device for firearms or take a safety course up to a $300 one-time tax credit for their expenses. There’s a $10 million cap on the amount in tax credits the state can issue each year.
The measure now requires approval from the Senate Finance committee and the full chamber.
A separate proposal from Au would create a misdemeanor offense for making a firearm accessible to a child. It would also require gun dealers to post notices that it is illegal to allow children to access unsecured firearms. But that bill never received a committee vote.
No increase on cigarette taxes
House Bill 506, sponsored by Rep. Scott Hilton, R-Peachtree Corners, would require the state’s Medicaid health insurance program to cover tobacco cessation treatment – both counseling and prescribed drugs.
The measure would prohibit any Medicaid insurers from requiring prior authorization for those services or placing a lifetime cap on tobacco cessation services. The House Thursday approved the measure.
Separate proposals from Au and fellow Democrat Rep. Sam Park of Lawrenceville that would have increased taxes on cigarettes failed to get committee hearings. Georgia has the second-lowest cigarette tax rate in the country at $0.37 for a pack of cigarettes, according to the American Lung Association.
Pharmacists could provide HIV prevention drugs
Senate Bill 195, sponsored by Sen. Chuck Hufstetler, R-Rome, would allow Georgia pharmacists to dispense pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) without a prescription if certain conditions are met. These drugs prevent the transmission of HIV. The bill passed unanimously in the Senate and now awaits action in the House.
Certification reforms for foreign doctors also stall out
After an unsuccessful effort last year, Sen. Kim Jackson, D-Stone Mountain, made a renewed push to create an easier pathway for foreign doctors to get certified to practice here in Georgia.
The goal is to increase the supply of doctors, especially those with diverse backgrounds who can provide care in underserved areas and communities.
But legislation faltered after technical concerns were raised by the Georgia Composite Medical Board, which manages licensing and regulation for medical professionals, at a committee hearing last month.
Jackson is working with the medical board to come to agreement on those details and is looking for a bill that did pass to attach her language to, she told Healthbeat on Friday. That happened last year as well, when the proposal was attached to a bill related to gangs, but that legislation failed to pass.
A separate bill that would make it easier for foreign-trained veterinarians to practice in Georgia breezed through the House and is awaiting Senate approval.
Measure to regulate recovery residences does not advance
A measure initially proposed by Sen. Randy Robertson, R- Cataula, to create a certification program for residences where people in recovery from alcohol or substance abuse can live in a supported environment, never got started.
Robertson instead plans to introduce the bill next year, said Jeff Breedlove, strategic policy advisor for the Georgia Council on Recovery.
Improving drug testing for illicit drugs
Senate Bill 6, sponsored by Sen. Kay Kirkpatrick, R-Marietta, would change Georgia law to broaden protections for people to use testing kits for illicit drugs without being penalized.
A 2023 reform made it clear that testing strips for fentanyl and other synthetic opioids do not fall under Georgia’s ban on drug paraphernalia. Kirkpatrick’s bill goes further, ensuring that Georgians can also test for non-opioid adulterants like Xyaline, a veterinary sedative found in illegal drugs.
It gained unanimous approval in the Senate and now awaits a hearing and vote in the House Public and Community Health committee.
But failing to get a floor vote in the House was a proposal from Rep. Lee Hawkins, R-Gainesville, to require public higher educational institutions, including technical colleges, to have opioid overdose reversal kits on their campuses.
Rebecca Grapevine is a reporter covering public health in Atlanta for Healthbeat. Contact Rebecca at rgrapevine@healthbeat.org.
