Kemp signs surprise billing limits
♦ Two local lawmakers attend the ceremony highlighting new healthcare initiatives.
Gov. Brian Kemp signed into law Thursday eight pieces of healthcare legislation that included restrictions on surprise medical billing and enhanced access to medical care for new mothers on Medicaid.
Local lawmakers Sen. Chuck Hufstetler and Rep. Katie Dempsey, both Rome Republicans, were invited guests at the ceremony that took place at Wellstar Kennestone Hospital in Marietta.
Dempsey sponsored House Bill 578, which lets the state Department of Human Services conduct criminal background checks on student volunteers and interns. She’d been working on it for two years at the request of DHS officials.
Hufstetler and Rep. Lee Hawkins, R-gainsville, teamed up on the surprise billing legislation, pushing identical bills. Hawkins’ HB 888 was the one that made it through under the wire and Hufstetler carried it in the Senate.
“This will get the patient out of the middle of surprise bills — a position that often leads to massive charges and bankruptcy,” Hufstetler said following the signing.
The law addresses the problem of emergency care patients getting socked with out-of network charges, sometimes months after an operation. It sends disputes between the insurer and the provider to arbitration, instead of leaving it to the patient to pay the balance.
Hufstetler said Georgia is the 16th state to enact a system to resolve the disputes, and he believes it’s the most comprehensive.
“I hope it can be used as a model for other states, as well as the federal government to pass national reform,” he said. “This bill is a compromise between all parties. It took five years to make it happen and it is a huge win for the consumer.”
Sen. Chuck Hufstetler (right) and Rep. Lee Hawkins flank a seated Gov. Brian Kemp at a Thursday ceremony at Wellstar Kennestone Hospital where Kemp signed into law their legislation addressing the issue of surprise medical bills.
Kemp, who combined the signings with the grand opening of the hospital’s new emergency room, said the new laws signal “an historic step forward” in terms of healthcare.
“And frankly, it couldn’t come at a better time — as our state and country face the greatest public health challenge we have seen in the 21st century,” he added.
“When we began 2020, none of us could have predicted that we would face a pandemic and grapple with unprecedented threats to the lives — and livelihoods — of all Georgians,” Kemp said.
Rep. Sharon Cooper, R-marietta, took up the problem of maternal mortality this session to pass HB 1114. The measure lets Georgia seek a Medicaid waiver to provide up to six months of postpartum care.
The bill also extends Medicaid coverage for breastfeeding and lactation care.
Kemp also signed the following legislation Thursday:
♦ HB 789, creates a rating
system for hospitals based on how many medical specialty groups like anesthesiologists and radiologists are contracted. The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Mark Newton, R-augusta, said the intent is to promote “truthin-advertising” that can help curb surprise billing practices.
♦ HB 521, by Rep. Houston Gaines, R-athens, allows dentists licensed outside the state to temporarily practice dentistry in Georgia if they are serving low-income patients at clinics or charitable events.
♦ HB 932, by Gaines, allows podiatrists in Georgia to organize professional corporations with other doctors.
♦ SB 28, by Sen. Lester Jackson, D-savannah, prohibits insurance copayments for health benefits plans from being set in a way that could “unfairly deny health-care services.”
♦ SB 395, by Rep. Ben Watson, R-savannah, sets terms for investments in mutual, trust and retirement funds, and revises terms on reserving proceeds from the sale of hospitals for indigent care.