|
|
February 23, 2004 For more information contact: 404-817-6133 404-817-6247 404-817-6170 |
|
February 23, 2004 Greetings from the Dome! Legislators ticked another day off of the 2004 Session. Here are some of the day's events: Floor News The Senate had a light day of activity. Congressman Sanford Bishop was in the Chamber and addressed the Senate briefly. There were a number of Resolutions which the Senate addressed. Sen. Brian Kemp spoke about SR 674, which proposes the creation of the Improvement of Georgia's Pre-K Program Joint Study Commission. His Resolution was adopted by a vote of 36 to 13. Sen. Hugh Gillis presented SR 767, which proposes dates for the creation of a State-wide open season for dove hunting. SR 767 was adopted without objection. Sen. Renee Unterman spoke about SR 578 which is a Resolution to encourage kindergarten through grade twelve schools to promote health education and physical activity. Her Resolution was also adopted without objection. The House had a number of pieces of Legislation on its calendar. Here are a few highlights from today's activity: HR 1095, a Constitutional Amendment which proposes to amend a financial incentive for builders who provide quality low-income housing for Georgians, cleared the House by a vote of 157 to 2. This is following 2000 Legislation in which the General Assembly passed legislation to extend tax credits to builders who would provide quality housing for low-income citizens. There was a problem found in Columbus and in other locations because local tax assessors began assigning a value to these tax credits, and to add that value to a property's ad valorem tax bill. Rep. Tom Buck argued that this effectively limited this credit's ability to encourage developers to construct low-income units in their projects. If this passes the Senate and is included on the ballot, it could amend Georgia's Constitution to make the pre-qualified low-income housing tax credit a separate class of property for ad valorem taxation. Thus, tax assessors would be prevented from adding the credits into the value of the property. HB 1347, which would allow the Dept. of Human Resources the ability to expedite criminal background checks for childcare workers and foster parents passed by a vote of 163 to zero. The bill proposes that local law enforcement agencies conduct these background checks on behalf of childcare facilities or foster care placement agencies to ensure adults applying to care for children do not have criminal histories. The Dept. of Human Resources would use local law enforcement to conduct background checks and the local law enforcement agencies must retain the results, as well as written assessments of these searches. Due to a swell in media interest regarding tax files on individuals (especially Legislators), HB 1461 was proposed. Media organizations have been using the Department of Revenue's delinquent list to find the material for stories. Sometimes, these elected officials have been paying their taxes on a payment schedule (agreed upon by the Department). HB 1461 proposes to allow any citizen to authorize the Dept. of Revenue to release taxpayer information to other parties if written authorization has been provided so that specific information can be released. This bill passed by a vote of 166 to zero. HB 1194 also passed by a vote of 157 to 4. This bill proposes to provide a limited, qualified immunity for a court appointed custody evaluator or guardian for children. The proposal would only allow for civil liability in cases of gross negligence. HB 1457 also passed by a vote of 169 to zero. This bill proposes to require all companies and their affiliates doing significant business with the State to register with the state and collect sales and use taxes for goods and services rendered in this state. New Legislation SB 551 – Sen. Unterman and colleagues have proposed amending Title 43 to regulate the practice of massage therapy by adding a new Chapter 24A. This legislation has been attempted in the past so it will be interesting to see if this can make it through the process. This proposes to create a Georgia Board of Massage Therapy to oversee this practice. The bill also proposes licensure and educational requirements. An applicant for a massage therapy license will be required to be 18 years of age and submit to a background report which will show the applicant is of good moral character and lacks convictions of moral turpitude. He or she would also have to complete a minimum of 500 hours of course and clinical work; or passed satisfactorily the National Certification Examination for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork, or such equivalent test approved by the Board or has been licensed in another state with similar requirements; or he or she must have met the qualifications necessary to sit for the National Certification Examination for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork; or he or she must hold a license from another state or jurisdiction with similar requirements; or he or she must have practiced massage therapy for at least ten hours per week on average for at least ten years prior to the date of the application and have completed at least 100 hours of formal training; or he or she has practiced massage therapy for the last five years prior to the date of the application and has completed 200 hours of formal training; or he or she must demonstrate, to the satisfaction of the Board, training in another state or jurisdiction which meets or exceeds the requirements for licensing in Georgia; or he or she has been a member for a period of one year prior to the application for licensure of a professional massage therapy association established before 2002 which holds members to a published code of ethics and that applicant must have a level of membership which requires an average of at least ten continuing education hours annually and requires a 500 hour core curriculum or the passing of a certification examination. This bill was referred to the Senate Health and Human Services Committee. HB 1566 – Rep. Bridges and colleagues have dropped this change to enact the Health Care Protection Act in Chapter 10 of Title 31. It proposes to request that an unmarried mother identify the name of a baby's father and proposes to provide for county health departments to attempt to locate putative fathers. Current law is that if the mother is not married to the father at either the time of conception or at the time of birth, the name of the putative father shall not be entered on the certificate of birth without the consent of the mother and the person to be named as father. In this bill, the local county health department would have to attempt to locate the putative father, even seeking the county sheriff or local police department. If the county health department locates the putative father, then he must be notified of his rights and responsibilities regarding the identified child. If he denies paternity, he will be required to be asked to submit to a DNA blood test to establish paternity with the cost of the test to be borne by the putative father if the test establishes paternity or, if the test fails to establish paternity, by the mother or the state, if the mother is indigent. Moreover, the bill states that if an unmarried mother has a child born as a result of artificial insemination, then that must be reflected on the birth certificate. This bill was referred to the House Judiciary Committee. HB 1568 – Rep. Mitchell has offered this amendment to O.C.G.A. § 37-2-6.1 so that no community service board shall employ any person who is receiving a retirement benefit from the Employees' Retirement System of Georgia except in compliance with the provisions of O.C.G.A. § 47-2-110. This would apply to direct employment or contracts. It would not affect contracts in effect on July 1, 2004. This was forwarded to the House Retirement Committee. HB 1573 – Rep. Scott has proposed this change to O.C.G.A. § 31-7-17 concerning hospital and related institutions' regulation. It states that "no hospital that owns any managed care plan as defined in Code Section 33-20A-3, in whole or in part, shall charge an uninsured patient or a patient with healthcare coverage other than such managed care plan an amount greater than the rate charged by the hospital for the specific service or services rendered under such managed care plan." The bill was referred to the House Industrial Relations Committee. HB 1574 – Rep. Hill and others have authored this proposal to O.C.G.A. § 45-9-104 concerning disability claims for a law enforcement officer or firefighter in order to provide that claims for temporary disability must be submitted within 60 days of the incident resulting in the disability. (Currently, the law is 30 days.) This bill was also referred to the House Industrial Relations Committee. HB 1575 – Rep. Bannister and others have offered this addition of O.C.G.A. § 36-9-12 regarding the disposition of county-owned property. It states: "A local government authority, as defined in subsection (d) of Code Section 36-80-16, desiring to sell or dispose of real property owned by such authority shall comply with the provisions of Code Section 36-9-3 in the sale or disposal of such property in the same manner as a county governing authority and shall be subject to the same conditions and exceptions as provided in such Code section." This bill has been referred to the State Planning and Community Affairs Committee. HB 1576 – Rep. Dodson and others have offered this amendment to O.C.G.A. § 51-1-29.1 concerning the provision of limiting liability of free health clinics in tort actions. A motion to engross was served on this bill. This new section would read: (a) For purposes
of this Code section, the term: (1) 'Free health clinic' means a nonprofit,
charitable, or eleemosynary institution or organization that voluntarily and
without expectation or receipt of compensation provides health care services to
persons who do not qualify for Medicare or Medicaid, have no private health
insurance, and who cannot afford to see a medical care professional. (2)
'Medical care professional' means a professional who is licensed under Chapter 4
of Title 26 or Chapter 9, 11, 11A, 26, 30, 33, 34, or 44 of Title 43. This bill is to be heard in the House Health and Human Services Committee. HB 1578 – Rep. Royal and others have offered this amendment to Chapter 8 of Title 48 concerning sales and use taxes to change provisions regarding limitations on the maximum amount of local sales and use taxes (such could be not greater than 2%). It also adds language on additional procedures, conditions, and limitations with respect to certain water capital outlay projects, sewer capital outlay projects, or water and sewer capital outlay projects using a SPLOST (special county 1% sales and use tax). This measure was sent to the House Ways and Means Committee. HB 1579 – Rep. Oliver and others have proposed an amendment to Article 9 of Chapter 9 of Title 34 concerning the Subsequent Injury Trust Fund to provide that the Fund shall not reimburse a self-insured employer or an insurer for a subsequent injury for which a claim is made after June 30, 2004. This Fund will be required to continue to reimburse a self-insured employer or insurer for claims filed prior to July 1, 2004 as long as those claims qualify for reimbursement. Additionally, self-insured employers and insurers shall continue to pay assessments per O.C.G.A. § 34-9-358 to the extent necessary to fund claims filed prior to July 1, 2004. This bill was sent to the House Industrial Relations Committee for review. HB 1581 – Reps. Harrell and Dooley co-authored this proposal amending Chapter 1 of Title 31 to provide for the advisory committee on hearing in newborn infants to continue in existence until June 30, 2007. Currently, this is to sunset on July 1, 2005. It also proposes to allow an expansion in the membership of this advisory committee from 11 Members to 18 Members. It also proposes that information about the availability of resources for intervention and treatment of newborn infants with hearing loss and strategies for augmenting such resources to assure that identified infants have access to appropriate follow-up services be studied. The bill has been forwarded to the House Health and Human Services Committee. HB 1583 – Rep. Tommy Smith and others have offered this change to employment security law found in Chapter 8 of Title 34 to provide that persons unemployed through no fault of their own due to undue family hardship arising out of domestic violence or compelling family obligations may be eligible for unemployment compensation. The bill defines "undue family hardship" which is such things as (but not limited to): circumstances resulting from an individual's status as a victim of family violence (such as having a temporary protective order, restraining order, or other order for equitable relief involving family violence issued by a court of competent jurisdiction); or circumstances relating to health, care, or welfare of the individual or individual's family of such a compelling nature as to require the individual's presence (such as a family member facing imminent death; individual's family member is elderly and unable to care for himself or herself and no other reasonable alternative exists; etc.). This bill was forwarded to the House Industrial Relations Committee. Committee News One of the more interesting Committee meetings was hosted by the Women's Caucus. Late today, the women gathered in the Legislative Office Building to hear information on tort reform. There were several women in attendance, among whom were Rep. Pat Gardner; Rep. Gail Buckner; Rep. Lynn Smith; Rep. Michele Henson; Rep. Barbara Massey; Rep. Debbie Buckner; Rep. Judy Manning; Rep. Jill Chambers; Rep. Pat Dooley; Rep. Carolyn Hugley; and Sen. Horacena Tate. Rep. Randall Mangham was also seen sitting in the back of the room where he listened to presentations. Tom Goes with MAG Mutual presented some data on the need for tort reform as physicians who own MAG Mutual have seen problems occurring with the lawsuits filed, settled or tried and paid. Goes argued that these physicians are getting profits from their investments on their medical malpractice premiums paid to MAG Mutual; rather, it is seeking to fund these settlements and verdicts. One OB/Gyn physician testified that she stopped taking Medicaid patients. She also noted to Legislators that 65% of births in Georgia are Medicaid babies. She has also limited the high risk procedures in her practice and has stopped covering midwives. Insurance, she claimed, was the issue. Georgia Watch, an organization purportedly funded by the Georgia Trial Lawyers Association, testified that women were the ones who would be most harmed by tort reform – especially by caps on non-economic damages. Many times women forego careers to stay home. Thus, their "economic" damages of lost wages were not going to be as high and they depended on verdicts containing high "non-economic" or pain and suffering damages. Tim Jefferson, Counsel to Grady Hospital, testified as the manager of all liability and insurance issues for his hospital. He stated that the current situation facing Grady is impacting the availability of healthcare in Georgia. Grady is the largest public hospital in the State and the largest provider of uncompensated care. Moreover, it is also the largest Medicaid provider with 800,000 cases seen annually. Of these 800,000, Grady admits more than 35,000 patients. Grady is the only Level I trauma center and one of a few sickle cell providers. It also has one of the two burn units in the State. Grady faces the same liability issue that other hospitals face but it has much more indigent and charity care and more trauma cases. Mr. Jefferson stated that he believes the State can enact meaningful tort reform measures and believes that all persons who have been harmed should have "reasonable" compensation. Currently, the system has open-ended liability which is far greater than it needs to be. Robin Clark, a trial lawyer, testified. She stated that she took an oath to protect and defend the civil justice system. She also testified that she is the face of a trial lawyer – a wife, mother, and one who kneels down next to Legislators when they worship the lord. She stated that proposed tort reform changes could eliminate citizens' access to justice. There has also been no empirical evidence provided. There has also been no correlation between the jury awards and the insurance premiums. She stated that in one recently released report from the Congressional Budget Office, Georgia is the third leading state to attract OB/Gyns and that Georgia had the 17th cheapest insurance premiums for OB/Gyns. She also took issue with Mr. Jefferson's testimony and stated that Grady enjoyed "charitable immunity." She stated that caps on non-economic damages were discriminatory to women, children and the elderly. When asked by Rep. Debbie Buckner, Mr. Jefferson stated that the "right proposal" was to consider the cap on non-economic damages. However, other measures are important. Rep. Dooley asked who told him that caps would make a difference. Mr. Jefferson stated that he had twenty years of experience as a lawyer with a hospital. He also clarified that while Grady has "charitable immunity" it only applies to the facility and not the physicians or employees. Thus, sometimes a hospital does get dismissed from a case but its physicians and employees are still held responsible. The Senate Judiciary Committee reported out a Substitute to SB 408. It proposes to amend O.C.G.A. § 35-1-7 to limit liability of physicians, licensed under Chapter 34 of Title 43, who volunteer to assist law enforcement officers while law enforcement officers are engaged in tactical operations whether the physician volunteer is working with or without compensation. This is basically extending immunity from liability like that provided to law enforcement officers in performing their duties at a scene of an emergency. This bill is seen as a vehicle for tort reform and could be broadened to also cover such action in an emergency room. If you have any questions regarding this Report, please contact Stanley S. Jones, Jr., Jeffrey C. Baxter, or Helen Sloat. |
|
