HB219: HB219 Professions and businesses; establish a professional health program to provide for monitoring and rehabilitation of impaired healthcare professionals; authorize

Currently Georgia law does not spell out a formal process for the state boards overseeing counselors, social workers, marriage and family therapists, and nurses to monitor and rehabilitate licensees who are impaired by substance use or a mental or physical condition. This bill changes that by adding new sections to Title 43 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated. The Georgia Composite Board of Professional Counselors, Social Workers, and Marriage and Family Therapists and the Georgia Board of Nursing would each be authorized to run a 'professional health program' and to contract with an outside organization (called an 'entity') to monitor and rehabilitate impaired licensees. Records generated through these programs would be kept confidential and shielded from open records requests, court subpoenas, and discovery. Participating professionals would pay their own costs, and contracted entities would get immunity from civil or criminal liability for program-related work. Both programs depend on funding approved by the General Assembly or on private gifts and grants.

• Authorizes the counselors/social workers/therapists board and the Georgia Board of Nursing to each create a professional health program for monitoring and rehabilitating impaired licensees.
• Lets each board contract with an outside entity to run the program, including monitoring, rehabilitation, and reporting fitness-to-practice determinations.
• Makes all records, interviews, findings, and reports produced through these programs confidential, exempt from Georgia's open records law, and unavailable for court subpoenas or discovery.
• Requires impaired professionals who take part in a program to pay all costs of their own participation.
• Grants entities that contract with a board immunity from civil or criminal liability for program work performed under the contract.
• Makes each program dependent on state funding approved by the General Assembly, while allowing boards to accept private funding, grants, or in-kind gifts.

Licensed counselors, social workers, and marriage and family therapists regulated by the Georgia Composite Board; nurses regulated by the Georgia Board of Nursing; outside organizations that might contract to run these health programs; and any of these professionals who become impaired by substance use or a health condition.

Impaired healthcare professionals could get a confidential path to treatment and monitoring instead of only facing discipline, while the public retains protection because the boards oversee fitness to practice. Records tied to these programs would stay out of public view and court proceedings, and licensees who join would cover their own costs.

• Section 1 adds Code Section 43-10A-24, letting the counselors, social workers, and therapists board create and contract for a professional health program and defining 'impaired,' 'entity,' and related terms.
• Section 1 lets the board share licensee information with a contracted entity despite existing confidentiality provisions in O.C.G.A. § 43-1-2 and § 43-10A-17.
• Section 1 makes program records confidential, exempt from Georgia's open records law (O.C.G.A. Title 50, Chapter 18), and unavailable for subpoenas or discovery.
• Section 1 requires impaired professionals to pay their own program costs and gives contracted entities civil and criminal immunity for contract-related work.
• Section 2 adds a parallel Article 5 (O.C.G.A. §§ 43-26-70 through 43-26-74) creating the same type of professional health program for the Georgia Board of Nursing, with matching confidentiality, cost, and immunity rules.
• Both new programs are subject to funding approved by the General Assembly, and each board may accept private funding, grants, or in-kind donations to support the program.
• Section 3 repeals any existing laws that conflict with the new provisions.

1. 2026-05-05Effective Date 2026-07-01
2. 2026-05-05Act 381
3. 2026-05-05House Date Signed by Governor (House)
4. 2026-04-06House Sent to Governor (House)
5. 2026-03-12Senate Passed/Adopted (Senate)
6. 2026-03-12Senate Third Read (Senate)
7. 2026-02-02Senate Committee Favorably Reported (Senate)
8. 2026-01-12Senate Recommitted (Senate)

• Ron Stephens (R, HD-164)Primary sponsor
• Viola Davis (D, HD-087)
• David Clark (R, HD-100)
• Chuck Hufstetler (R, SD-052)

1. PassedHouse voteMarch 4, 2025

   168 yea, 0 nay (4 not voting, 8 absent)

   Passage: House Vote #174

2. PassedSenate voteMarch 12, 2026

   46 yea, 1 nay (4 not voting, 4 absent)

   Passage: Senate Vote #711

• healthcare licensing
• nursing regulation
• substance abuse treatment
• medical licensing boards
• open records exemptions