February 1, 2001

For more information contact:

Stanley S. Jones, Jr.

404-817-6133

           Greetings!  Now that the flag issue has been resolved, the Legislators are turning to other work.  Today, budget discussions resumed.  Rep. Mickey Channell submitted his Subcommittee’s recommendations on the FY 2001 Budget to the Speaker and others on the House Appropriations Committee.  The rural hospitals, which Rep. Channell and others feel that the Legislature should support due to their economic hardships, have also been meeting with the Speaker, Rep. Jay Shaw, and Commissioner Russ Toal in an effort to come to some agreement on what can be done to save them. 

          Late in the day, Augusta hosted a barbecue for Legislators in the Depot.  Needless to say, it was a packed house.  Many “special interests” such as Augusta National and the Medical College of Georgia were participating. 

Floor Activity 

          In the House, HB 169, authored by Rep. Mickey Channell, passed by a vote of 156 yeas to zero nays.  This legislation amends the currently timely payment of claims law.  Specifically, it amends an O.C.G.A. § 33-24-59.5(c) provision regarding the notification of the failure to pay a claim and the penalty associated with such violation.  A new subsection (c) is added: “Each insurer shall pay to the insured or other person claiming payments under the health benefit plan interest equal to 18 percent per annum on the proceeds or benefits due under the terms of such plan for failure to comply with subsection (b) of this Code section.  No amount of any such interest penalty shall be applied toward any cap on benefits payable to the insured or other person claiming payments under the health benefit plan.”  Currently, a health benefit plan must, within 15 working days of receipt of a proof of loss, mail to the insured or other person claiming payments under the plan a letter or notice stating the reasons the insurer may have for failing the claim in whole or in part and which also gives the person notified an itemization of any necessary documents in which to process the claim.  The bill will now proceed to the Senate.

Newly Introduced Legislation 

SB 98 – Sen. Steve Thompson has authored this bill amending Article 1 of Chapter 24 of Title 33 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated.  This insurance legislation proposes to require health benefit policy coverage for surveillance tests for women at risk for ovarian cancer. 

SB 102 – Sen. Vincent Fort has introduced this Legislation amending Chapter 13 of Title 16 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to controlled substances, Chapter 4 of Title 26 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to pharmacists, Article 8 of Chapter 7 of Title 31 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to health service provider psychologists, and Chapter 39 of Title 43 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to psychologists.  This would authorize certain psychologists the right to prescribe drugs in certain circumstances as long as those psychologists were certified to prescribe drugs. 

HB 356 – Rep. Nan Orrock has authored another version of the provider credentialing legislation.  Specifically, the bill amends Chapter 1 of Title 43 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to general provisions governing professions and businesses, so as to provide for centralized collection of credentialing data for health care practitioners.  The bill provides for the use of credentials verification organizations and proposes to require health care entities desiring core credentials data to obtain it from a credentials verification organization if the health care practitioner so desires.  In the previous version of this legislation, one entity would have benefited from the passage of the legislation.  We currently believe there is a great deal of opposition to the legislation by hospitals as well as business groups due to the expense involved. 

Committee Activity 

          In yesterday’s House Judiciary Committee, HB 156 passed out of the Committee by substitute, offered by the bill’s author, Rep. Larry Walker, and as amended in Committee.  HB 156, the Patient’s Right to Know Act, would establish physician profiles to be maintained by the Composite State Board of Medical Examiners and which would be updated by a physician once any new information needed to be included (these updates would have to be reported to the Board by the physician within 30 days and the Board would then have 15 days to verify such information and post).  Any person who has a grievance to file against a physician (for treatment or lack thereof, etc.) may also do so.  Examples of the information collected in the profiles are education, credentials, age, staff privileges, lawsuit settlements and judgments, etc.  The language concerning what must be reported on malpractice is now structured in a ‘tiered’ fashion with an initial threshold of $300,000 attributable to any one physician.  No information would be reported until the time of the enactment of this law, July 1, 2002.  Also, information would be kept on the profile for ten years.  Persons could then access this data through the Composite State Board. 

          Also, the House Human Development Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee met to discuss FY 2002 budget items.  No action was taken by the Subcommittee, Chaired by Rep. Sinkfield.  This meeting was for information gathering purposes and for questions to the various departments such as the Department of Human Resources. 

Other News 

          HB 191, the re-write of Article 9 of Title 11 of the Code concerning secured transactions is proceeding through the House Judiciary Committee.  The Subcommittee assigned to this Legislation has been working through the various provisions.  It is expected that a public hearing on this bill, sponsored by the State Bar Association, will be held on Monday, Feb. 5, 2001.