HB 1112 – Rep. Parham has introduced this amendment to Title 40 to change the provision that private entities processing motor vehicle applications have a fidelity bond of $25,000 – he would like to see it increased to $50,000. This amends specifically O.C.G.A. § 40-2-25.

HB 1115 – Rep. Harbin and others have introduced this initiative concerning prohibition of the use of credit reports or credit scoring of individuals by insurance companies in the underwriting process for motor vehicle insurance policies. The House Insurance Committee has already heard from the Department of Insurance on this issue. This bill has now been officially assigned to the Committee for further review.

HB 1116 – Rep. Holland introduced this amendment to the Civil Practice Act in an effort to amend O.C.G.A. § 9-11-16 concerning pretrial procedure, formulating issues, pretrial order, and pretrial calendar. Specifically, a judge may have discretion on the parties' calling of additional trial witnesses, not previously identified on the pretrial order. This has been forwarded to the House Judiciary Committee.

HB 1139 – Rep. Callaway and others have authored this proposal to amend Chapter 15 of Title 31 in an effort to create the "Cancer Care Trust Fund." Such fund would be administered by a cancer control officer in accordance with Article III, Section IX, Paragraph VI of the Constitution. Monies would come through a "check off" on the Georgia income tax return forms filed with the Department of Revenue.

HB 1148 – Governor Barnes' administration bill, carried by Rep. Charlie Smith, Rep. Henrietta Turnquest, Rep. Winfred Dukes and Rep. Kathy Ashe, regarding the specialty license plate which will have proceeds go towards funding treatment of breast cancer for women who are uninsured or underinsured, has now been dropped in the hopper. Treatment will be funded through the Indigent Care Trust Fund.

HR 848 – Rep. Billy McKinney and others have offered a resolution creating the Joint MARTA Finance Study Committee. This Resolution has been referred to the House Rules Committee. Another Resolution, HR 851, has been offered by Rep. McClinton which is similar – this proposes to create a Joint MARTA Study Committee.

HR 849 – Rep. Channell and others have created this Resolution to create a study committee on tourism. This too has been forwarded to House Rules Committee.

SB 356 – Sen. Robert Brown has introduced an amendment to O.C.G.A. § 31-33-2 concerning the furnishing of copies of records to patients or providers. His proposal would amend subsection (a) to state: "Upon written request from the patient, personal representative of the patient, or survivor of the patient, the provider having custody and control of the patient's record shall furnish a complete and current copy of that record, in accordance with the provisions of this Code section." It also allows this "personal representative of the patient, or any survivor of the patient" to be furnished such records within a reasonable time period. Also, the bill adds two new subsections (d) and (e) respectively:

SB 360 – Sen. Nadine Thomas and others have introduced this amendment proposal to Chapter 24 of Title 33 to provide for direct access of patients to mammograms. Mammogram is defined in the bill to mean:

"any low-dose radiologic screening procedure for the early detection of breast cancer provided to a woman and which utilizes equipment approved by the Department of Human Resources dedicated specifically for mammography and includes a physician's interpretation of the results of the procedure or interpretation by a radiologist experienced in mammograms in accordance with guidelines established by the American College of Radiology."

Further, among the bill's provisions, it states that "No health benefit policy which is issued, delivered, issued for delivery, or renewed in this state on or after July 1, 2002, shall require as a condition to the coverage of a mammogram that an enrollee, subscriber, or insured first obtain a referral from a primary care physician, as such term is defined by the group plan, policy, or contract for health care services." It also requires disclosure to enrollees of this right to direct access.

SB 364 – Sen. Walker and others offered this amendment to Article 3 of Chapter 21 of Title 15 of the Code relating to the Brain and Spinal Injury Trust Fund so as to make changes to the Commission and its authorities. One of the provisions states that no funds shall be disbursed from the fund until approved by the Governor but that the Commission would make recommendations on such disbursement to the Governor.

SB 375 – Sen. Golden offered this bill to amend Title 33 in order to enact the "Georgia Consumer Choice of Benefits Health Insurance Plan Act." This bill has been pushed by the small business owners so as to allow businesses to basically 'cherry pick' their insurance healthcare mandates. This bill is similar to HB 434 but is more closely modeled after the Arizona law.

The Health and Ecology Committee met this afternoon and passed out three different proposals. Rep. Childers' bill, HB 1049, which will provide for 30 days of paid leave for State employees who make a live organ donation and 7 days of paid leave for bone marrow transplant, passed out of the Committee without any amendments. An attempt was made to place teachers who are partially paid by the State and participate in the State Merit System to qualify in such program. Rep. Kathy Cox pushed this proposed amendment and Rep. Fran Millar encouraged the Committee to keep the bill in its original form.

Additionally, the Committee passed out HR 646, a Resolution by Rep. Buddy Childers which will create a specialty license plate in order to fund the Veterans Nursing Home Fund. This Resolution proposes a Constitutional Amendment in order to create this special fund. The Committee passed this Resolution out without any changes.

SB 221 was also before the Committee again. Last year the Committee passed the bill out but since the bill never cleared the House Rules Committee, it was back before the Health and Ecology Committee. Sen. Donzella James and Rep. Sally Harrell, both proponents of the bill which strikes current language in the law about how a woman must breast feed in a public place (discreet and in a modest way), removed the new provision from the bill. Additionally, in final discussions, the Committee changed the law altogether by eliminating the reference to the "right" given to the child to breast feed so as to follow more closely other States' language concerning breast feeding. At the time of this Report, the printed version of the language was unavailable. There was a great deal of debate about this bill. In the end, only one Legislator raised opposition to its passage by Committee Substitute.

Rep. Mickey Channell's Subcommittee from the House Appropriations Committee held a meeting this afternoon to get more details about the Georgia Cancer Coalition's FY 2002 Budget proposals made by Governor Barnes. Russ Toal, Director of the Coalition, spoke to the Subcommittee. He noted that data had been gathered from early 1998 through mid-April 2001 from the State Health Benefit Plan enrollees' claims on the cases of diagnosed cancer. There were 58,000 reported cases. Twenty percent of the inpatient claims from the SHBP data related to cancer and thirteen percent of the outpatient claims related to cancer. Additionally, the Coalition has also looked at FY 2001 data from the Medicaid claims and found that 15,413 (so far) have cancer diagnoses and have caused the State $92.5 million in expenditures for a one year period. Mr. Toal mentioned many of the programs covered under the Coalition's Budget such as smoking prevention and cessation ($26.5 million); United Georgia Campaign; Cancer State Aid Program (which actually decreases State dollars and replaces those $2 million State funds with Tobacco Dollars); cancer screenings by the health departments (these have increased by 40%); and early detection efforts and use of challenge grants in the rural areas. He also noted the need for the bioinformatics dollars and the $10 million for bond dollars for the Medical College of Georgia building. Legislators wanted details on the expenditures of these monies. There were a number of questions concerning the placement of the Centers for Excellence – Mr. Toal explained dollars were in the budget for planning grants only and the centers could be named quickly once the planning grants were made available by the Legislature. The Georgia Radiological Society was the only group to testify in the public portion of this meeting and that was in support of the Governor's initiative on cancer as well as Mr. Toal's involvement to date.

Rep. Georganna Sinkfield and Sen. Nadine Thomas hosted a Joint Human Development Committee meeting in an effort to hear more about use of Temporary Assistance to Needy Families dollars.