March 8, 2001

For more information contact:

Stanley S. Jones, Jr.

404-817-6133

          Activity was much more limited today.  Legislators were interested in getting home to their districts and committees wanted to get their business completed as soon as possible.  Activity will heat up once again next week as the end of the Session nears.  

Floor Activity 

          The House and Senate had relatively light calendars.  One of the most interesting debates dealt with HB 195, the proposal which would allow optometrists the right to prescribe.  HB 195 was lost by a vote of 28 to 27.  The ride to the end was bumpy and included lots of spins and turns.  An amendment was offered and made on the Floor of the Senate by Sen. Charles Walker to delete from the optometrists' list of drugs any steroid products.  The amendment was passed by a vote of 39 to 3.  It was rumored that Sen. Tommie Williams would vote in favor of the physicians rather than the optometrists if this were to occur.  After the vote was made on the amended version of the bill, the physicians won the battle with a vote of 28 to 27.  A motion was immediately made for the Senate to adjourn until Monday, March 12, 2001; almost simultaneously, Sen. Harold Ragan (a longtime proponent of HB 195) made the motion for the Senate to reconsider its actions.  In a ruling by the President of the Senate, the Senate was told that the motion to adjourn took precedence over the reconsideration motion.  Thus the Senate voted on whether to adjourn – it declined to adjourn.  Then the motion to reconsider had further discussion – it was asked whether such bill could be reconsidered if the bill had already been before the Senate.  The President stated that the bill could be reconsidered as it had been amended and he ruled that such reconsideration would occur on Monday, March 12, 2001.  In all of the excitement and discussion, Sen. Ragan then withdrew his motion for reconsideration. 

          The Senate also passed Sen. Dean’s Resolution, SR 234, which proposes to create a Music Industry Committee along with an interim committee and citizens’ advisory council.  It also passed out SR 134 which proposes to create a Joint Study Committee on the Prevention and Emergency Care of Injuries as unintentional injuries are the most common cause of death in persons ages 1 to 34.  

          The House passed SB 24, using the Substitute of the bill prepared by the House Judiciary Committee.  This measure was introduced by Sen. Lamutt and pertains to electronic signatures and records.  It amends the Code at O.C.G.A. § 10-12-4 and specifically states: “even when a statute, regulation, or other rule of law specifies a particular type of record other than an electronic record or a particular type of signature other than an electronic signature, this chapter shall control to permit the use of electronic records and electronic signatures in the circumstances otherwise governed by such statute, regulation, or other rule of law, unless such statute, regulation, or other rule of law expressly refers to and limits the application of this chapter.”

Committee Activity 

          The House Judiciary Committee has reported SB 210.  Sen. Tanksley explained the bill, concerning the release of medical records under a subpoena.  The version under review by  the Committee was in a Substitute form and thus different than what had been previously passed by the Senate.  After discussing the bill, the Committee made a number of amendments to the Bill basically trying to ensure that the proposal fits within the existing State law on privacy matters throughout the Code.  Various interest groups have been participating in this Bill’s discussions including the State Attorney General, the Georgia Hospital Association, the Medical Association of Georgia, the Georgia Trial Lawyers Association, and others.  The bill primarily amends Title 24 and addresses issues raised in a Georgia Supreme Court decision, King v. State.  A Committee Substitute will hopefully be available on Monday, March 12, 2001. 

          In Senate Appropriations Committee news, the Subcommittee on Human Development met to discuss its ideas for the Recommendations that it will make to the Senate’s “Green Door” Committee.  Sen. Nadine Thomas, Chair of the Subcommittee, led her Subcommittee through various items in the Department of Community Health and Department of Human Resources' budget items at issue.  In a rare moment, additional testimony was allowed by a couple of groups – one trying to clarify its needs for the Family Connection implementation funds as found in the Department of Human Resources’ Budget and the second for statewide vision screening program for second graders.  Also, the Medical Association of Georgia testified about its need for an impaired physicians’ program. 

          Some of the items up for discussion include the following: 

Department of Community Health (by item number from the Tracking Document for HB 175): 

1)                  To provide additional funds for increased utilization in Medicaid Benefits ($36,128,669) and increases in costs and utilization of pharmaceuticals for the Medicaid population ($54,193,003) netted against federal matching funds by utilization of upper payment limit (UPL) credits (Total funds of $222,357,637) – Governor recommended $20,621,672 and House recommended $9,018,115.)

4)                  To reimburse physicians and physician-related providers based on 90% of the 1999 Resource Based Relative Value Scale with one year of inflation applied – Governor recommended $6,136,357 and House recommended $7,136,357 (the extra $1 million raises the inflation factor from 3.6% to 4.1%).

17)              This was discussed in conjunction with item (18) which transfer the state matching funds for MR waiver services and community mental health services from DCH to DHR – this is approximately $88 million.

22)              To authorize funding for 5 pediatric resident positions at Morehouse School of Medicine (for total funds of $98,800) – Governor had added language of ‘yes’ and House had recommended $33,000.  This Subcommittee discussed the full $98,800.

26)              To reimburse 100% of cost for cost-based outpatient services for hospitals who provide indigent care equal to 5% of their adjusted gross revenues as determined by DCH (total funds of $2,926,241) – Governor recommended $1,188,639 and House recommended the same.  This Subcommittee discussed taking this amount down to $270,000 with the remaining amount moved to use by the critical access hospitals.  There were some questions about what was at risk – would facilities be harmed.

27)              To expand community health, rural health and migrant health centers to promote access to primary health care for uninsured populations – Governor recommended $1,500,000 as did the House.  This Subcommittee felt this should be cut in half; the Subcommittee also had asked for more information and whether this money would be used for expansion.

28)              This item, along with item (29) would provide funds to an implementation of a waiver for persons over 18 with sickle cell and cystic fibrosis respectively had been recommended by the Governor at $1,949,760 and $1,631,476 and the House recommended $1,374,760 and $1,231,476 respectively.  The Subcommittee discussed the dates for startups for these programs as being around October 1, 2001 – thus, neither needed the full amount of funds.

37)              To provide for matching funds for an education initiative on folic acid – this was a new item added in the House of $100,000.  This Subcommittee felt this was very important as benefits of folic acid extended beyond women of child-bearing years or pregnant women but also helped with heart disease, etc.  Thus, it wanted to expand this education initiative – perhaps to $150,000.

41)              To annualize additional funds provided in HB 174 for the Mercer School of Medicine – this was a new item added by the House.   The Subcommittee discussed its merits as well as what could be funded by the Indigent Care Trust Fund.  The bigger issue appears to be the funding of $7.7 million for Mercer.  The Subcommittee felt that it should address not only Mercer but also Morehouse School of Medicine. 

Under the DCH Tobacco Settlement Funds, the Subcommittee discussed taking $125,000 from the recommended $2,125,000 for funds to identify and develop training for cancer caregivers in order to move that to another line item for the Ovarian Cancer Alliance.  It was discussed that money should be provided in an effort to find a test for this cancer which is an accurate indicator of the presence of the disease. 

Department of Human Resources: 

4)                  To provide funds for the statewide implementation of Family Connection – The Governor had recommended $1,425,000 in State funds; the House recommended that TANF funds be used for this purpose.  The Subcommittee heard testimony that the TANF funds could not really be used to draw down additional federal dollars as some of these dollars do not go towards “direct services” which is required by TANF money.  Thus, State dollars must be used.

10)              To increase the rate paid for Special Assistants to the Attorney General (SAAGs) who provide legal assistance to DFACS to $60 per hour (total funds would be $2,088,628) – the Governor recommended $1,000,000 for this and the House recommended a raise from $45 to $50 per hour or $350,000.  This Subcommittee discussed the importance of these SAAGs and the testimony that was made about their work.  They are leaning at moving this back to $60 per hour or the full $1,000,000.

29)              To provide funds for the Georgia Early Learning Initiative (GELI) – the Governor had recommended $4,500,000 and the House had added language to use CCDF funds for GELI.  The Subcommittee felt like that it should include some amount so that the Conference Committee could discuss this – perhaps $2,000,000.

32)              To provide funds for Books for Babies – Governor had recommended $300,000 and the House had agreed.  The Subcommittee was adamant that this would be deleted – some even discussed that perhaps books could be retrieved from the libraries.

49)              This item creating a pilot for a residential treatment program targeted to adolescents with mental retardation found incompetent to stand trial or deemed inappropriate for the Juvenile Justice System (Governor had recommended $796,355 as did the House) was discussed along with item (51) which proposed to establish 3 different jail diversion programs for people with mental illness using 3 nationally tested program models targeted to non-violent offenders who need treatment (Governor had recommended $636,916 and the House had deleted that item).  This Subcommittee discussed moving the money from item (49) to item (51).

73)              To match funds for Atlanta Project – House added $18,000.  The Subcommittee felt it should eliminate this. 

A number of other items were discussed, and this Subcommittee will meet again on Friday to discuss their final recommendations. 

Other News 

          There will not be a Report for March 9, 2001 as the General Assembly will stand in recess until Monday, March 12, 2001.  The Senate will work diligently on Friday and Saturday to hammer out its recommendations for the FY 2002 Budget. 

          Among the bills to be heard on Monday are the following: 

House: 

SB 51 – This bill deals with the use of defibrillators and regulation of CPR by emergency medical services and lay rescuers. 

Senate: 

HB 206 – This bill would allow local water authorities to provide for voluntary contribution programs. 

HB 65 – This bill pertains to disclosures of public records and would exempt teachers and public school employees. 

HB 355 – Rep. Orrock’s Registered Nurse First Assistant bill which would allow such to obtain direct reimbursement from health insurance plans.