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A recap of the 2008 General Assembly
As reported by GNA Lobbyists Jay Morgan
and Wendi Clifton
As the 2008 Georgia
General Assembly adjourned sine die on the 40th legislative
day on Friday, April 4th, there were few issues of importance
that were satisfactorily resolved. In the overall healthcare arena, the
most important issues were trauma care funding and certificate of need
reform. Fortunately these two issues were addressed.
Georgia ’s
15 designated trauma center hospitals will receive more than $60 million
for the remainder of this fiscal year. However, no long term trauma
care funding mechanism was approved by the House and Senate. Therefore
this issue will be back next year as these critical providers continue
to struggle to meet the needs of Georgia’s 9.3 million citizens.
After four years of
significant negotiation and compromise by all interested parties, the
General Assembly approved reform to the certificate of need process.
Senate Bill 433 includes such provisions as establishing general
surgery as a single specialty; setting up a process for ambulatory
surgery centers to apply for CONs; and authorizes the application of a
destination cancer hospital under certain circumstances. SB 433 was
signed into law by Governor Perdue on April 9th.
Specifically related to
Nursing, the following bills were approved by the General Assembly:
H.B. 977 – Authorizes an
exemption from insurance premium taxes and a deduction on income taxes
on certain high deductible health savings accounts. We will continue to
monitor this measure as it is sent to the Governor for his approval.
H.B. 1041 – Eliminates
obsolete language relating to graduate nurses and requires
fingerprint record checks for applicants for licensure as a
registered professional nurse.
H.B. 1222 – Requires
health care licensing boards, including the Board of Nursing, to
issue special licenses for retired nurses to provide their services
for free to the indigent under certain conditions.
An important
measure the Georgia Nurses Association helped defeat this year was
SB 498 and
HB 1323, companion bills that would restrict access to Georgia
consumers by requiring physician review of every patient before
cosmetic laser surgery could be performed. This proposal would have
significantly limited the practice area of many Georgia nurses that
provide these services.
Regarding the FY 2009
appropriations process, the Georgia Nurses Association initiated
preliminary discussions regarding a Nursing Workforce Center to collect
and analyze Georgia’s nursing workforce data so that we can better
understand and address our nursing shortage issues. Although this
initiative did not receive funding this year, it will be a priority for
GNA during the next year’s budget planning cycle that begins this
summer.
Thank you for your
participation throughout this legislative session. GNA’s legislative
efforts are only as successful as its member involvement.
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