Professions and businesses; establish a professional health program to provide for monitoring and rehabilitation of impaired healthcare professionals; authorize
Summary
HB 219 authorizes two Georgia licensing boards—the Georgia Composite Board of Professional Counselors, Social Workers, and Marriage and Family Therapists, and the Georgia Board of Nursing—to create or contract for a “professional health program” for impaired healthcare professionals. The bill defines impairment broadly to include substance use, illness, and mental or physical conditions that affect a professional’s ability to practice safely. The programs are intended to monitor, evaluate, and rehabilitate affected licensees so they can safely return to or continue practice while protecting the public.
The bill also sets out how these programs would operate. Each board may contract with an outside entity, share pertinent information with that entity, and use the entity to carry out monitoring and rehabilitation functions. Records connected to the program are made confidential and exempt from open records, and they are protected from subpoena and discovery. Participants must pay their own costs, contracted entities receive liability immunity when acting within the contract and statute, and the programs are subject to legislative appropriation, though the boards may also seek private funding, grants, and in-kind donations.
Impact
HB 219 adds new Code sections to Title 43 governing professional counselors/social workers/marriage and family therapists and nurses, creating statutory authority for professional health programs in those licensing systems. It expands board powers to share information with contracted program administrators, establishes confidentiality protections for program records, and provides immunity for entities performing program duties. The bill affects licensed counselors, social workers, marriage and family therapists, and nurses who are impaired and may enter monitoring or rehabilitation programs, as well as the boards and any outside organizations that administer the programs.
Sentiment
The bill appears to have been broadly supported and noncontroversial in the legislature. It passed the House unanimously, 168-0, and later passed the Senate overwhelmingly, 43-1. The vote totals suggest strong bipartisan agreement with the bill’s public-safety and rehabilitation goals.
Contention
No committee debate or transcript material is provided, and the recorded votes show little visible opposition. The main policy issues implicit in the bill are the confidentiality of program records, the boards’ authority to share information with outside entities, and the requirement that impaired professionals bear program costs. Any concern would likely come from privacy, due-process, or cost-related objections, but the available record does not identify specific lawmakers or groups raising them.
Georgia Composite Board of Professional Counselors, Social Workers, and Marriage and Family Therapists; establish a professional health program; authorize
Makes permanent certain provisions relating to reimbursement for commercial and Medicaid services provided via telehealth; establishes the rural healthcare professional loan repayment award program and the rural healthcare professional tax credit program; establishes a tax credit for rural healthcare providers.