On the House Floor, HB 1066 concerning the provision for a limitation on the liability of certified child safety passenger technicians and sponsoring organizations in a tort action, was passed out of the House by a vote of 168 to zero. This bill has been supported by Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.

HB 1156 – Rep. Smith’s bill amending Chapter 30 of Title 43 concerning the establishment of a list of pharmaceutical agents which optometrists shall be allowed to use for treatment, has now been forwarded to the House Health and Ecology Committee.

HB 1163 – Rep. Dodson’s bill amending Chapter 2 of Title 31 concerning septic tank installation requirements is now in the House Health and Ecology Committee for study.

HB 1180 – In an effort to help the State’s farmers, Rep. Royal has introduced an amendment proposal to Code Section 48-8-3 of the Code relating to exemptions from state sales and use tax so as to exempt sales to any agricultural commodities commission created by and regulated by Chapter 8 of Title 2 of the Code. Such proposal is to become effective on July 1, 2002.

HB 1199 – Rep. Henson has authored this proposed bill amending Chapter 9 of Title 43 concerning chiropractors' licensure requirements. The bill provides a new definition for the term "diagnosis" which means "a process which attempts to identify the nature and cause of a patient’s complaint or abnormal finding, or both, and is essential to the ongoing process of reasoning used by the doctor of chiropractic to direct patient management." Additionally, it requires the following as qualifications of applicants for licensure:

"All students for licensure must meet applicable requirements and standards as established by the Council on Chiropractic Education for chiropractic programs and institutions, including the education and training that will prepare graduates to:
(1) Assess the patient's general health status, complaints, and problems leading to a diagnosis;
(2) Become primary care chiropractors serving as a point of entry for patients to access illness and wellness related care;
(3) Develop the attitudes, knowledge, and skills required to collect appropriate patient assessment data, determine a diagnosis, and establish a plan of appropriate chiropractic management, co-management, or referral commensurate with the needs of the individual patient; and
(4) Select and organize pertinent information leading to the development of the problem and differential diagnosis list."

HB 1209 – Rep. Bannister has offered this bill relating to the imposition of a special county 1% sales and use tax so as to authorize use and expenditure of tax proceeds for certain capital outlay projects consisting of nonprofit hospital facilities. This amendment would be at O.C.G.A. § 43-8-111(a)(1)(J) et seq.

HB 1219 – Rep. Smith has introduced this amendment to Chapter 43 of Title 33 concerning medicare supplemental insurance in an effort to provide that insurers who offer medicare supplemental insurance policies in Georgia shall make certain policies available to persons under age 65 who, as a result of a disability, qualify for medicare under certain circumstances and conditions.

HB 1226 – Rep. Howard offered this amendment to Article 4 of Chapter 16 of Title 45 concerning the office of medical examiners. It would allow counties which have a local law for the establishment of a medical examiner in effect on December 31, 2002 to change the name of the position to office of the coroner.

HB 1237 – Rep. Rogers and others introduced this bill to amend Code Section 31-3-5 in an effort to define the term ‘soil classifier’ and associated provisions concerning on-site sewage management systems.

HB 1238 – Reps. Hammontree, Bordeaux, and Davis have authored this amendment to O.C.G.A. § 24-7-9 concerning identification of medical bills. It proposes to change the list of healthcare professionals from whom bills may be submitted into evidence. Currently, the law includes a licensed practicing physician, chiropractor, dentist, orthotist, podiatrist, or psychologist and would now include "medical doctor, dentist, orthodontist, podiatrist, physical or occupational therapist, doctor of chiropractic, psychologist, advanced practice nurse, social worker, professional counselor, or marriage and family counselor."

HB 1243 – Rep. Harbin and others dropped this bill in the hopper to amend O.C.G.A. § 48-8-3 in an effort to allow an additional sales tax exemption. This would exempt the "sales of tangible personal property and services to volunteer fire departments to be used for firefighting or related purposes."

HB 1250 –Rep. Ehrhart and others have proposed the enactment of the "Truth in Spending Act" which would be created at O.C.G.A. § 45-12-78 concerning the annual estimates submitted by heads of budget units.

HB 1245 – Rep. Ashe and others have proposed this bill to amend the "Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority Act of 1965" in an effort to change the use of the proceeds of a sales and use tax for the Authority. One of the amendments included is raising the amount of the proceeds of the levied tax under the act to be used for subsidizing the operating costs of the system from 50% to 55%.

HR 972 – Rep. Randall and others have dropped this Resolution in an effort to recognize Girl Scouts. It is proposed that February 7, 2002 will be Girl Scout Day in Georgia (it began in Savannah in 1912).

HR 976 – Rep. Franklin has offered this Resolution proposing an amendment to the State’s Constitution so as to provide for the design and description of the State’s flag.

HR 982 – Rep. McBee and others have proposed the creation of a Joint Study Committee on Chronic Fatigue and Immune Dysfunction Syndrome. This Study would look at problems associated with persons afflicted by the disease and who are refused medical coverage for their illnesses by insurance companies as well as look at ways to raise the healthcare community’s awareness of the illness and to encourage research to identify the cause or causes and/or cure.

SB 378 – Sen. Price’s bill concerning the continuing battle between hospitals in North Fulton County proposes to amend Chapter 20A of Title 33 and would require a managed care plan enrollee to provide a signed affirmative consent that he or she has been informed of and accepts specific elements relating to his or her health plan (including the list of participating providers, limitations on choices of providers, etc.). This bill has now been forwarded to the Senate Insurance and Labor Committee for review.

SB 393 – Sen. Meyer von Bremen’s bill amending Article 2 of Chapter 6 of Title 5 concerns the appellate practice which adds appeals which may be taken to the Supreme Court and Court of Appeals from the following judgments and rulings of the superior courts, constitutional city courts and other such courts or tribunals from which appeals are authorized by the State’s Constitutions and laws to also include the following:

1) all judgments or orders in criminal cases denying pleas of double jeopardy or pleas in bar upon the theory that an acquittal has already been effected under the provisions of Code Sections 17-7-170 and 17-7-171;

2) all orders granting motions to cancel a notice of lis pendens;

3) all orders denying nonparties engaged in news gathering the privilege pursuant to Code Section 24-9-30;

4) all orders in criminal cases sustaining a motion to suppress evidence as provided in paragraph (4) of subsection (a) of Code Section 5-7-1;

5) all declaratory judgments as provided in Code Section 9-4-2;

6) all orders granting motions for summary judgment as provided in subsection (h) of Code Section 9-11-56; and

7) all other orders and judgments deemed subject to immediate review by applicable law.

Additionally, the bill proposes that "except as otherwise provided in Code Section 5-6-35, the appellate review authorized in this Code section may be initiated by filing a notice of appeal as provided in Code Section 5-6-37."

There is another amendment proposed to Code Section 5-6-35 concerning the requiring application for appeal, contents, filing service of the application, exhibits, etc. The proposal is a change at subparagraph (j):

"When the order, decision, or judgment complained of in an application filed pursuant to this Code section is deemed by the appellate court to be subject to direct appeal and the applicant has not otherwise filed a timely notice of appeal in the court below, the appellate court shall grant the application without regard to the underlying merits of the case. The relief provided in this subsection shall also apply to an application improperly filed pursuant to subsection (b) of Code Section 5-6-34, without regard to the existence or validity of the certificate of immediate review, provided that the application otherwise conforms to the procedural requirements of this Code section."

SB 396 – Sen. Gingrey and others have proposed this amendment to O.C.G.A. § 50-18-72 regarding government records which are not required to be disclosed to the public in an effort to provide that disclosure shall not be required for certain records which would compromise the security of government facilities against terrorist or other attack. This would include elements of a plan for protection against such attack; existence, nature, location or function of security devices designed to help protect against such attack; or plans blueprints, or other materials concerning the structure or function of a government facility.

The Human Development Subcommittee of House Appropriations met twice today. In an early morning meeting, various entities testified about either keeping or enhancing their programs’ budgets. Later this afternoon, the Subcommittee was hammering out its recommendations for the FY 2002 Supplemental Budget to go to the full House Appropriations Committee.

Also this afternoon, the Higher Education Subcommittee of House Appropriations met to work out its list of recommendations on the FY 2002 Budget. Chairman Royal made his determination known to everyone that he and others on his Subcommittee were very concerned about the Dept. of Agriculture. As such, one of their moves was to ‘find’ dollars in the FY 2002 Budget and shift those to the Dept. of Agriculture in an effort to fund both the 4-H program and county extension agents. Additionally, Rep. Newt Hudson made it clear that it was very necessary to replace the pecan horticulturist as the State previously had two but now none. This will cost $80,000 (the salary and office costs – the State was paying in excess of $300,000 per Rep. Hudson). Four 4-H agents would be added to the program at a cost of $200,000 (this includes a salary of $35,000 plus $15,000 office costs for each) and maintenance and operations money of $150,000. This will help with the cuts that the agriculture extension offices took in the FY 2002 Budget. The monies will come from the Medical College of Georgia Health, Inc. – a profit arm of the Medical College per Rep. Royal. In the budget, this entity is proposed to receive $940,000. Thus, these dollars will go towards agriculture efforts. Additionally, the agriculture experiment stations will receive $358,000 and the extension services $442,000.

Other items which Rep. Royal’s Subcommittee passed out include:

1) $400,000 for a capital outlay project which Rep. McBee had requested for the University of Georgia ;

2) A number of ‘minor’ projects for the Board of Regents totaling $21 million in bonds;

3) Four requests for libraries (improvements to existing facilities) in the amount of $3.3 million;

4) Several planning and pre-design initiatives for Dept. of Adult and Technical Education;

5) Equipment dollars for the Dept. of Adult and Technical Education (for new and replacement equipment) (new equipment alone is to be increased by $18 million); and

6) Money for QuickStart in the amount of $500,000 (there were no dollars in the Governor’s recommendation), as this is an effective program in the rural areas.

The House Judiciary Committee also met this afternoon with a number of bills on its agenda. HB 917 (a bill by Rep. Willard and Rep. Stuckey) concerning a "standby guardianship" for children whose parents are either terminally ill or otherwise incapacitated or incarcerated was before the Committee. After a number of persons discussed the bill, Chairman Bordeaux placed the Bill in a Subcommittee to be chaired by Rep. Mike Boggs. Questions centered around use of a nurse practitioner to make the determination of when to invoke the standby guardianship and whether it would be proper to use physician’s assistants for such and when the agreement is terminated, etc. A number of persons spoke in support of the bill which has also been reviewed by the State Bar of Georgia’s Probate Committee.

The House Judiciary Committee also passed out HB 1090 concerning notice provisions in a tort action against the State and when such should be sent to the Dept. of Administrative Services and the offending entity. The bill was before the Committee in a Substitute version and it passed without further discussion.

Senate Insurance and Labor met this afternoon and passed out SB 356 concerning medical records release. Sen. Robert Brown presented his bill; no questions were asked and there was no public testimony on the bill. It sailed out of Committee. Another bill in the Committee, a bill introduced by Sen. Tim Golden in an effort to allow employers to offer another form of insurance coverage to their employees by basically cherry picking the mandates (or stripping out unneeded or unwanted coverage), was assigned to a Subcommittee to be chaired by the author.