SB130: SB130 Health; medical education funding and the service cancelable loan program; expand

Georgia currently pays hospital authorities and certain "designated teaching hospitals" up to $10,000 per year for each medical resident they train, and it runs a loan program meant to draw doctors, dentists, and other health workers to underserved rural areas. This bill broadens both programs. It replaces the narrower "designated teaching hospital" category with a wider "designated institution" category that also includes any medical facility with a federal Medicare/Medicaid certification number that offers an accredited residency or fellowship program. It adds fellows (physicians in ACGME-accredited fellowship training) to the group eligible for the $10,000 per year payment, alongside residents. It also rewrites the purpose and eligibility rules of the rural service-cancelable loan program (O.C.G.A. Title 31, Chapter 34) so that physicians currently in residency or fellowship training, not just those who have finished their training, can receive loans in exchange for agreeing to practice in rural Georgia.

• Expands the definition of facilities eligible for state medical education funding beyond hospital authorities and traditional teaching hospitals to include any Medicare/Medicaid-certified medical facility with an accredited residency or fellowship program.
• Adds a new definition of "fellow" and makes fellows, not just medical residents, eligible for the state's per-physician training payments of up to $10,000 per year.
• Rewrites the purpose section of the rural loan program to explicitly include making loans to physicians currently in residency or fellowship programs, not only those who have finished training.
• Changes the loan applicant qualification rules so a resident physician or fellowship physician in an ACGME-accredited program can qualify for a loan by being a U.S. citizen or national in that program.
• Keeps the existing cap that state payments to hospitals and medical facilities cannot exceed $10,000 per resident or fellow per year and remain subject to pro rata cuts if funding is short.

Hospital authorities, teaching hospitals, and newly eligible medical facilities that train residents and fellows; medical residents and fellows themselves; the Department of Community Health and the Georgia Board of Health Care Workforce, which administer the funding and loans; and rural communities seeking more doctors, dentists, physician assistants, and nurses.

By letting more types of medical facilities receive training payments and by allowing doctors still in residency or fellowship to qualify for loan repayment tied to rural service, the bill could expand the pool of medical trainees eligible for state support and potentially increase the number of physicians available to practice in underserved parts of Georgia.

• Section 1 rewrites O.C.G.A. § 31-7-95 to replace "designated teaching hospital" with "designated institution," adding facilities with a CMS certification number that host an ACGME-accredited residency or fellowship.
• Section 1 adds a definition of "fellow" and extends the $10,000 per year per-trainee payment from the Department of Community Health to cover fellows as well as residents.
• Section 1 keeps the rule that payments are reduced pro rata if state appropriations are insufficient and that no new teaching hospitals or institutions are added until funding is available.
• Section 2 revises O.C.G.A. § 31-34-2 to state the rural loan program's purpose now includes loans to physicians in residency or fellowship programs, not just those who have completed training.
• Section 3 revises O.C.G.A. § 31-34-4(a) to add resident physicians and fellowship physicians as a qualifying category, requiring only U.S. citizenship or national status and enrollment in an ACGME-accredited program.
• Section 4 repeals conflicting laws.

1. 2025-05-13Effective Date 2025-07-01
2. 2025-05-13Act 185
3. 2025-05-13Senate Date Signed by Governor (Senate)
4. 2025-04-07Senate Sent to Governor (Senate)
5. 2025-03-31House Passed/Adopted (House)
6. 2025-03-31House Third Readers (House)
7. 2025-03-20House Committee Favorably Reported (House)
8. 2025-02-28House Second Readers (House)

• Mike Hodges (R, SD-003)Primary sponsor
• Shawn Still (R, SD-048)
• Ben Watson (R, SD-001)
• Kay Kirkpatrick (R, SD-032)
• Billy Hickman (R, SD-004)
• Rick Townsend (R, HD-179)

1. PassedSenate voteFebruary 26, 2025

   52 yea, 4 nay

   Passage: Senate Vote #93

2. PassedHouse voteMarch 31, 2025

   155 yea, 7 nay (6 not voting, 12 absent)

   Passage: House Vote #369

• medical education funding
• rural health care
• physician loan repayment
• hospital residency programs
• health workforce