BILL YEARTA: Health care, education focus as Crossover Day approaches

The final work day last week marked the halfway point of this year’s session. With 20 legislative days down and 20 to go, the speed has increased as we work toward “Crossover Day,” scheduled for day 30. Our votes in the House focused on measures of importance such as health care and education.

Health care: To ensure the health and well-being of all pregnant women, we passed House Bill 129. This bill would expand the eligibility criteria for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families benefits to pregnant women. TANF provides monthly cash assistance to extremely low-income families with the goal of moving these families toward economic freedom and self-sufficiency.

Those at high risk for certain medical conditions will take comfort in the passage of House Bill 85, which would require Georgia health insurance benefit policies to cover biomarker testing. Biomarker testing analyzes a patient’s tissue, blood or other biospecimen to look for genes, proteins and other substances, allowing for expedited diagnosis, treatment, management, and monitoring of a disease, such as cancer. While biomarker testing is most used for cancer, it could soon be used for other conditions, such as Alzheimer’s.

We also passed House Bill 143, which would require the Georgia Department of Community Health to cover continuous glucose monitors as a pharmacy benefit through Medicaid. Medicaid recipients would be eligible for this benefit if they have a diabetes mellitus diagnosis and use insulin daily or have a history of problematic hypoglycemia.

Education: To support our schools in the rural areas of our state, we passed House Bill 81 to revise the qualifications of grant funding opportunities for low-wealth K-12 school systems to help build and maintain schools. To be eligible for funding, the local school system must meet the following:

· Currently, or within the last three years, ranked in the bottom 25% of special-purpose local-option sales tax collections and in property value.

· System would be required to commit five years of their SPLOST revenues toward the applicable project.

· Requires that educational facilities be at least 35 years old.

· Limits systems to receive these grants only every 10 years after their need has been met. House Bill 87, also known as the “Completion Special Schools Act,” was passed in hopes of increasing our graduation rate. This act creates additional pathways for at-risk students to earn their high school diplomas. Under the bill the State Board of Education will adopt policies to allow the establishment, funding, and operation of “completion special schools.” These schools would give greater flexibility to high-risk students by offering online instruction and night classes. Unlike our traditional system, completion schools would also allow students who turn 18 to self-enroll in courses until they are 22 years old.

House Action: The following House bills also passed and are now under consideration in the Senate:

· House Bill 76, would revise the licensing requirements for an associate marriage and family therapist to allow the Commission on Accreditation for Marriage and Family Therapy Education to set coursework, training hours and the type of clinical experience needed.

· House Bill 91, requires a personal estate representative to notify all beneficiaries about a will and file such notices with the probate court within a certain timeframe.

· House Bill 139, restricts disclosure of the home address, date of birth and home phone number of a non-sworn employee of a law enforcement agency if he or she testifies for the prosecution in a criminal case and would instead allow the disclosure of the employee’s current work location/phone number.

· House Bill 176, increases monthly payments for Superior Court reporters as a contingent expense and travel allowance.

· House Bill 182, would align the Georgia recording statute regarding deeds and other instruments with Georgia’s current savings statute.

· House Bill 193, increases the public works construction contract value amount from $100,000 or less to $250,000 or less if the contract is exempt from specific contracting and bidding requirements.

· House Bill 215, creates licensure requirements for advanced practice registered nurses and would define APRNs as persons registered with the Georgia Board of Nursing as a certified nurse midwife, certified nurse practitioner, certified nurse anesthetist, clinical nurse specialist in psychiatric/metal health or a recognized APRN before June 2006.

We will resume our work this week to consider several bills under consideration. With only eight legislative days remaining until “Crossover Day,” our schedules will be extremely hectic. In the coming days and weeks ahead, please feel free to reach out to me with your thoughts or concerns regarding legislation. Thank you for the pleasure and honor of allowing me to serve as your voice under the Gold Dome.