HB109: HB109 Mental health; five-year pilot program for the purpose of creating emergency psychiatric assessment, treatment, and healing units or EmPATH units in hospitals; provide

Georgia currently has no dedicated legal framework for hospital-based crisis centers that treat people experiencing a mental health emergency outside a traditional emergency room. HB 109 would add a new article to Title 37 of Georgia's mental health code creating the 'EmPATH Georgia Act,' which sets up a five-year pilot program for Emergency Psychiatric Assessment, Treatment, and Healing (EmPATH) units. These units would offer 24/7 crisis evaluation, stabilization, and treatment for people in a behavioral health crisis, including a psychiatric evaluation within 24 hours of admission. The Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities, working with the Department of Community Health, would write rules, certify units, and award grants, with at least one unit required in a rural county and one in an urban county. The program depends on the General Assembly actually funding it, and it also allows private donations. A report on results is due by December 31, 2029, and the whole program and this new law section would automatically expire five years after it starts, ending July 1 of the following year.

• Creates a new five-year pilot program authorizing hospitals to operate certified EmPATH units for people in psychiatric or behavioral health crises.
• Requires the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities, with the Department of Community Health, to write rules and certify EmPATH units, including minimum care and reporting standards.
• Requires at least one EmPATH unit be established in a rural county (population under 50,000) and one in an urban county (population 50,000 or more).
• Exempts certified EmPATH units from Georgia's certificate of need requirement (O.C.G.A. Title 31, Chapter 6, Article 3) that normally applies to new health facilities.
• Makes the pilot program dependent on the General Assembly actually appropriating money for it, while allowing the department to accept private grants and in-kind donations.
• Sets an automatic end date: the pilot terminates five years after it starts, and the entire new law section repeals itself the following July 1.

People experiencing psychiatric or behavioral health crises, hospitals that choose to operate EmPATH units, the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities, the Department of Community Health, and residents of both rural and urban Georgia counties where units would be sited.

If funded, the bill would give Georgians in psychiatric crisis a specialized alternative to emergency rooms or inpatient hospitalization, with faster psychiatric evaluation and round-the-clock crisis care. Because it depends on future state funding and automatically expires after five years, its real-world impact hinges on whether lawmakers appropriate money and later choose to extend or expand it.

• Section 1 adds Article 8 to Chapter 1 of Title 37, creating the 'EmPATH Georgia Act' and defining terms like 'behavioral health crisis' and 'EmPATH unit' (O.C.G.A. § 37-1-131).
• O.C.G.A. § 37-1-132 directs the department and the Department of Community Health to run a grant program funding EmPATH units, with mandatory rural and urban representation and a bar on funding existing programs.
• O.C.G.A. § 37-1-133 designates EmPATH units as emergency receiving and evaluating facilities but not treatment facilities under existing mental health commitment law.
• O.C.G.A. § 37-1-134 exempts EmPATH units certified as crisis stabilization units from Georgia's certificate of need law (Title 31, Chapter 6, Article 3).
• O.C.G.A. § 37-1-135 makes the program contingent on a specific legislative appropriation, allows outside funding, requires a report to state leaders by December 31, 2029, and sets a five-year sunset with automatic repeal of the article the following July 1.
• Section 2 revises the definition of 'adult residential mental health program' (O.C.G.A. § 37-3-202) to exclude EmPATH units from that separate licensing category.

1. 2025-01-28House Second Readers (House)
2. 2025-01-27House First Readers (House)
3. 2025-01-17House Hopper (House)

• Imani Barnes (D, HD-086)Primary sponsor
• Mary Oliver (D, HD-084)
• Michelle Au (D, HD-050)
• Shelly Hutchinson (D, HD-106)
• Samuel Park (D, HD-107)
• Kimberly Alexander (D, HD-066)

• mental health care
• psychiatric emergency services
• rural health care
• hospital regulation
• behavioral health crisis response