HB 109: 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 lacks a specific state framework for emergency psychiatric assessment, treatment, and healing units, known as EmPATH units, which are hospital-based outpatient programs that treat people in a behavioral health crisis instead of sending them to a hospital emergency department or inpatient psychiatric bed. House Bill 109 adds a new article to Title 37 of Georgia law creating a five-year pilot program run by the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities, working with the Department of Community Health, to fund, regulate, and certify these units. The bill requires at least one EmPATH unit be established in a rural county and one in an urban county, sets minimum care and reporting standards, and exempts certified units from Georgia's certificate of need process. Funding depends on the General Assembly appropriating money, though the departments may also accept private donations and grants. The pilot must be reported on by December 31, 2029, and the whole article automatically repeals five years after the program starts.

• Creates a new five-year pilot program in Georgia law to fund the creation and operation of EmPATH units, which are hospital-based crisis treatment centers.
• Requires the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities, with the Department of Community Health, to write rules covering care standards, facility operations, and reporting for these units.
• Requires at least one EmPATH unit to be located in a rural county (under 50,000 people) and one in an urban county (50,000 or more people).
• Designates EmPATH units as emergency receiving and evaluating facilities under existing mental health commitment law, but not as treatment facilities.
• Exempts certified units from Georgia's certificate of need requirement (a regulatory approval normally needed to build new health facilities).
• Makes the program dependent on the General Assembly setting aside specific funding, while also allowing private donations, grants, or in-kind gifts.

People experiencing a psychiatric or behavioral health crisis, hospitals that might host EmPATH units, the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities and Department of Community Health, rural and urban county residents where units are sited, and existing crisis stabilization and residential mental health programs referenced in the definitions.

If funded, the pilot would give people in psychiatric crisis a treatment option besides an emergency room or inpatient hospitalization, offering psychiatric evaluation within 24 hours and round-the-clock services. Because the program depends on future state appropriations, whether any units actually open depends on separate budget decisions.

• Section 1 adds new Code Section 37-1-131 defining 'EmPATH unit' as a hospital-based outpatient program offering 24/7 crisis treatment, including psychiatric evaluation within 24 hours of admission.
• Section 1 (Code Section 37-1-132) directs the two departments to create a grant program, set rules, and ensure at least one unit each in a rural and an urban county, while barring grants from funding existing programs.
• Section 1 (Code Section 37-1-133) designates EmPATH units as emergency receiving and evaluating facilities but not treatment facilities under existing civil commitment law.
• Section 1 (Code Section 37-1-134) exempts certified units from Georgia's certificate of need law and clarifies it does not affect existing crisis stabilization unit services.
• Section 1 (Code Section 37-1-135) makes the program contingent on legislative appropriation, allows outside funding, requires a report to state leaders by December 31, 2029, and sets automatic termination and repeal five years after the program starts.
• Section 2 revises the definition of 'adult residential mental health program' in Code Section 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 crisis treatment
• EmPATH units
• behavioral health funding
• rural health care