SB111: SB111 "Georgia Consumer Privacy Protection Act"; enact

Georgia gives tax credits to people and businesses who donate to qualifying rural hospitals. To qualify as a 'rural hospital organization' eligible for those donations, a hospital must meet several conditions written into state law. This bill rewrites part of that definition. Instead of requiring a hospital's 'primary campus' to sit in a rural county, the bill says a hospital qualifies if it provides inpatient hospital services at a facility located in a rural county, or if it is a critical access hospital. It also lowers the indigent care revenue threshold from 10 percent to 5 percent of annual net revenue and removes an alternative path based on offering licensed maternal and newborn services. The bill adds a new requirement that a hospital's three-year average patient margin stay below a set statewide benchmark, calculated by the Department of Community Health. The bill repeals conflicting laws and does not state a delayed effective date.

• Changes the rural hospital tax credit eligibility test from having a 'primary campus' in a rural county to providing inpatient hospital services at a facility in a rural county, or being a critical access hospital.
• Lowers the minimum share of annual net revenue that must come from indigent care, charity care, or bad debt from 10 percent to 5 percent.
• Removes the option for a hospital to qualify by being licensed to provide maternal and newborn services instead of meeting the indigent care revenue threshold.
• Adds a new requirement that a hospital's three-year average patient margin stay below one standard deviation above the statewide average, as calculated by the state health department.
• Keeps existing requirements that qualifying hospitals participate in Medicaid and Medicare, serve indigent patients, file annual tax forms, and stay current on required audits.

Rural and critical access hospitals in Georgia that seek donations eligible for the state's rural hospital tax credit, the Georgia Department of Community Health, which administers eligibility and calculates the patient margin benchmark, and Georgia taxpayers who donate to these hospitals to claim the credit.

The definition changes affect which rural hospitals can receive tax-credit-eligible donations, a funding source many rely on. Lowering the indigent care threshold and adding a patient margin test could shift which hospitals qualify, affecting hospitals' access to this donation-based revenue.

• Section 1 amends O.C.G.A. § 31-8-9.1(a)(3) to revise the definition of 'rural hospital organization' used for the tax credit program.
• Subparagraph (A) changes the location test from 'primary campus' to providing inpatient hospital services at a facility in a rural county, or being a critical access hospital.
• Subparagraph (D) lowers the indigent care, charity care, or bad debt revenue threshold from 10 percent to 5 percent and removes the maternal and newborn services alternative.
• New subparagraph (H) requires a hospital's three-year average patient margin to be less than one standard deviation above the statewide three-year average, as calculated by the department.
• Section 2 repeals all laws in conflict with the Act.

1. 2026-05-11Effective Date 2026-07-01
2. 2026-05-11Act 462
3. 2026-05-11Senate Date Signed by Governor (Senate)
4. 2026-04-10Senate Sent to Governor (Senate)
5. 2026-04-02Senate Agreed House Amend or Sub (Senate)
6. 2026-03-31House Passed/Adopted By Substitute (House)
7. 2026-03-31House Third Readers (House)
8. 2026-03-25House Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute (House)

• John Albers (R, SD-056)Primary sponsor
• Max Burns (R, SD-023)
• Sheikh Rahman (D, SD-005)
• Shawn Still (R, SD-048)
• Ed Setzler (R, SD-037)
• Chuck Payne (R, SD-054)
• Randy Robertson (R, SD-029)
• Angie O'Steen (R, HD-169)

1. PassedSenate voteMarch 3, 2025

   53 yea, 2 nay (0 not voting, 1 absent)

   Passage: Senate Vote #129

2. PassedHouse voteMarch 31, 2026

   162 yea, 1 nay (1 not voting, 12 absent)

   Passage: House Vote #801

3. PassedSenate voteApril 2, 2026

   48 yea, 0 nay (5 not voting, 1 absent)

   Agree To House Substitute: Senate Vote #967

• rural hospitals
• hospital tax credits
• health care funding
• Medicaid and Medicare eligibility