Document Type
Peach Sheet
Abstract
The Act primarily reforms Georgia’s Certificate of Need Laws by removing thresholds for healthcare providers, thereby enabling them to increase the availability of healthcare services. Specifically, this Act seeks to expand access to healthcare for rural Georgians by easing certain restrictions affecting the construction and expansion of hospitals. The Act shortens the time period for reviewing hospital applications while expanding the rural hospital tax credit program. The Act also includes provisions for increasing hospital bed capacity, extending the maximum distance certain healthcare facilities can relocate without a Certificate of Need, expanding rural hospital perinatal services, and exempting psychiatric or substance abuse impatient programs for Medicaid and uninsured patients from Certificate of Need requirements when an agreement is reached with a nearby hospital. Finally, the Act creates the Comprehensive Health Coverage Commission, which will advise the Generally Assembly, the Governor, and the Department of Community Health on the quality of and access to healthcare for low-income and uninsured populations. This includes recommendations on reimbursement, funding, quality improvement and service delivery enhancement opportunities.
Recommended Citation
Myles H. Fogle, Sydney Grell & Carter Phillips,
Health - Certificate of Need,
41
Ga. St. U. L. Rev.
95
(2025).
Available at:
https://readingroom.law.gsu.edu/gsulr/vol41/iss1/11