The House and Senate are scheduled to be out of session the week of April 4, and back in session on Monday, April 11 for the 38th legislative day, and Tuesday, April 12 for the 39th legislative day. The General Assembly is scheduled to Sine Die (40th legislative and last day) on Thursday, April 14.

Governor Nathan Deal released his proposed budgets on January 12, 2011. Download the proposed budgets. 

  

The House of Representatives passed their version of the FY 2012 budget (HB 78) by a vote of 132-33. The Senate passed their version of HB 78 on Wednesday by a vote of 47-4. The Conference Committee has scheduled their first meeting for Monday, April 4 at 9 a.m.

  

HB 78 as proposed by the governor contained more than $500 million in additional cuts as compared to the FY 2011 budget. Total budget cuts since FY 2009 equal $2.9 billion.

  

The House version of HB 78 closed an additional $250 million shortfall in the State Health Benefit Plan as well as restored some of the governor's recommended cuts. Highlights for the House of Representatives' budgets for the Department of Human Services, Department of Community Health, and the education agencies are contained in the fact sheets below. 

Following a three year tax holiday, from 2002 forward, Georgia policymakers passed legislation to suppress employer state UI tax increases that would have built back the unemployment trust fund. HB 292 continues to suppress the automatic overall rate increase through 2012, but gives the DOL commissioner discretion to increase the overall rate by a maximum of 50 percent (an increase over last year's maximum of 35 percent), a discretion which the former DOL commissioner never exercised.

Several health care bills that address a wide variety of health care issues were passed by their originating chamber before crossover day. Key bills that are still alive in the 2011 session are listed below.

 

Private Insurance Regulation

 

HB 47 is similar to legislation introduced in recent years to allow health insurance companies to sell health insurance products licensed in other states. This bill would allow Georgia insurers to offer policies they currently offer in other states, even if those policies do not cover services required under Georgia law. The bill has passed the House and is assigned to the Senate Insurance Committee. 

 

SB 17 would create a Special Advisory Commission on Mandated Health Insurance Benefits, effective in 2012. The Commission would be charged with a variety of duties, including developing a system to assess the effect of mandated benefits taking into account the costs and impact of treatment and the cost savings to the health care system. This bill has passed the both the Senate and the House.

 

State Health Care Programs

 

HB 214 establishes a new state Department of Public Health as a separate cabinet-level agency reporting directly to the governor. This bill implements a recommendation by a special commission created to help guide the long-term structure of the state's public health activities. Both chambers have passed the bill, and it now moves to the governor for his signature.

 

SB 63 has undergone significant changes since it was originally introduced, though the goal of the bill to reduce provider and consumer Medicaid fraud is still the same. 

 

The version of the bill that passed the Senate would direct the Department of Community Health to conduct a pilot program to develop a new Medicaid smart card to be used to verify eligibility and identity at the point of service. This version no longer requires the pilot program to include biometric finger imaging.

 

The current bill gives the agency more flexibility in crafting the pilot program and in deciding whether to implement the program on a statewide basis.

 

A fiscal note was prepared on the original version of the bill, and estimated only a portion of the costs of the proposal. In particular, the costs of the new cards and other equipment was estimated to be $575,000 and $600,000, for a three- or six-month pilot program, respectively. These costs would total $23.2 million in the first year, with ongoing annual costs expected to be at least $3.2 million. 

 

Additional costs for computer and information system upgrades could not be estimated; however, these costs could be significant.

 

The fiscal note was unable to forecast potential savings because of the difficulty in estimating what portion of existing fraud could be curtailed by this program as well as the potential for new types of fraud that can arise with new technologies.

 

The bill has passed the Senate and is assigned to the House Health and Human Services Committee.  

 

Affordable Care Act

 

Several bills have been introduced that seek to prevent state agencies from, or limit the ways in which state agencies go about, implementing the Affordable Care Act that did not make it past crossover day.

 

One notable bill that did not survive was HB 476, which would have created the Georgia Health Insurance Exchange Authority as the governing body for the state health insurance exchange required under the Affordable Care Act. The governor has indicated that he will use executive authority to create an advisory committee to study the issue and make recommendations to the state on how to proceed.