Wrapping up the 25-26 Legislative Session

The 2025-26 legislative biennial ended on April 2 – Sine Die! Lawmakers made progress protecting consumers on many fronts, but stalled on several key opportunities to address healthcare and energy affordability. Below is an update on the outcomes of priority legislation we championed during the session.

Healthcare Access

Bills Awaiting the Governor’s Signature to Become Law

HB 506 – Prevent Ambulance Surprise Billing: This bill, sponsored by Representative Scott Hilton, was amended to include the language of SB 462, which protects consumers from ambulance surprise bills by requiring insurance coverage for certain emergency out-of-network ground transportation.

SB 427 – Pathway to Licensure for International Physicians: This bill, sponsored by Senator Ben Watson, provides for limited provisional licenses and a pathway to licensure for certain internationally trained physicians, helping to address physician shortages in rural and underserved areas.

SB 444 – Limiting AI Use in Insurance Coverage Decisions: This bill, sponsored by Senator Kay Kirkpatrick, prevents insurance companies from solely using Artificial Intelligence to make healthcare coverage decisions.

Bills Not Passed

HB 291 – CHW Certification: This bill, sponsored by Darlene Taylor, would have established a statewide certification pathway for Community Health Workers. Despite broad support from health systems, community organizations, and CHWs, the bill stalled in the Senate for two years.

HB 1236 – Require Licensed Clinical Peer in Final Coverage Determinations: This bill, sponsored by Representative Trey Kelley, would have required input from a licensed clinical peer in health insurance coverage decisions, but the bill never crossed over to the Senate.

SB 626 – Medical Debt Fairness Act: This bill, sponsored by Senator Chuck Hufstetler, would ​​require hospitals to proactively screen patients for financial assistance eligibility, and to exhaust all possible coverage options before pursuing collections. This bill was introduced late into the session, but we hope to see it reintroduced next year.

Bills That Have Become Law 

SB 5 – Limit Prior Authorizations: This bill, sponsored by Kay Kirkpatrick, took effect July 1, 2025. The law limits excessive prior authorization requirements and helps improve access to care.

HB 89 – Require the Provision of Psychiatric Records to the MMRC: This bill, sponsored by Representative Sharon Cooper, took effect on July 1, 2025. The law requires healthcare providers, facilities, and pharmacies to provide medical and psychiatric records to the Maternal Mortality Review Committee, helping the committee to better understand the state of the maternal health crisis.

Financial Protection

Bills Awaiting the Governor’s Signature to Become Law

HB 945 – Protect Eligible Adults from Financial Exploitation: This bill, sponsored by Representative Bruce Williamson, protects elderly and disabled adults by providing for holds on their accounts for suspected financial exploitation. The bill also provides for greater regulation of virtual currency kiosk owners and operators to encourage transparency and protect consumers from bitcoin-related scams.

Bills Not Passed

SB 282 – Earned Wage Access & SB 548 – Credit Repair Organizations: We successfully stopped these bills that would have weakened Georgia’s current laws that protect consumers from abusive fees often charged by these services.

HB 110 & HB 300 – Regulate Car Title Lenders: HB 110, sponsored by Representative Josh Bonner, and HB 300, sponsored by Representative Matt Dubnik, would have protected current military members from predatory lending practices in title pawn transactions and excluded motor vehicle certificates of title in pawn transactions, respectively. Unfortunately, both of these bills failed to cross over.

HB 500 – Increase Access to TANF: This bill, sponsored by Representative Sharon Cooper, would have increased access to Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Act (TANF), a federally funded cash assistance program for families with very low incomes. Unfortunately, the bill failed to make it out of the House Rules Committee the last two years.

HB 529 – Georgia Online Automatic Renewal Transparency Act: This bill, sponsored by Representative Carter Barrett, would have provided greater protections for consumers with respect to service contracts with automatic renewal provisions, including simplified cancellation options. Unfortunately, the bill failed to make it out of the Senate Agriculture and Consumer Affairs Committee.

Consumer Energy

Bills Not Passed

Despite introducing multiple bills to address people’s concerns about the influx of large data centers, and the costly tax incentives to attract them, the legislature failed to pass even one. Everyday Georgians will keep subsidizing big tech with tax breaks that cost the state billions in revenue annually, despite the introduction of SB 410, sponsored by Matt Brass, which would have repealed the data center tax exemption beginning in 2030.

Lawmakers also didn’t pass a single bill to make sure Georgia Power never passes costs to serve date centers onto their residential and small business customers. SB 34, sponsored by Senator Chuck Hufstetler, would have protected consumers from increased data center costs through utility rate setting. Unfortunately, a substitute was introduced that stripped this important language, but even this weaker version failed to cross over.

Other Bills We Support Awaiting the Governor’s Signature to Become Law

SB 195 – Allow Pharmacists to Distribute PrEP and PEP Under Certain Conditions: This bill, sponsored by Senator Chuck Hufstetler, provides regulations for pharmacists to dispense preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and postexposure prophylaxis (PEP) for the purpose of preventing HIV infection and other infections.

SB 428 – Medicaid Reimbursement for Certain Services: This bill, sponsored by Senator Kay Kirkpatrick, authorizes the Department of Community Health to submit a waiver request to the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to permit the qualification for Medicaid reimbursement of certain home and community based services.

HB 1344 – Georgia Insurance Affordability and Claims Integrity Act: This bill, sponsored by Representative Matt Reeves, is a comprehensive insurance bill that increases consumer protections by strengthening the Insurance Commissioner’s enforcement authority and insurance fraud penalties.

Fiscal Year 2027 Budget – Awaiting Approval By the Governor

A final budget for FY 2027 passed by a conference committee of three House and three Senate members included their spending priorities, especially for healthcare. Here are some of the budget wins that we advocated for in our recent policy paper on Maternal Health in Georgia:

• Increased Residency Slots: The committee funded 124 new primary care residency slots. Expanding residency slots addresses the physician shortage by helping ensure that newly trained providers stay in the state to practice.
• Increased Home Visiting: The committee funded the expansion of the maternal home visiting program to an additional 33 counties, helping to improve maternal health outcomes by connecting expectant new mothers with trained nurses and social workers.
• Increased Medicaid Reimbursement Rates: The committee included approximately $48 million in state funds to increase Medicaid reimbursement rates across a range of services, including dental care, primary care, and nursing homes, helping to increase access to care.

You can learn more about all the legislation we were following this Session on our Take Action page.

Thank you for all your efforts over these past two legislative sessions to join our advocacy in support of legislation to protect the health and financial well-being of Georgians!