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House · Engrossed · 2025-2026 Regular Session

HB 1122: Insurance; group or individual accident and sickness plans; provisions

Last action March 9, 2026 · Senate Read and Referred

House Bill 1122 would require Georgia health insurance plans, the state health benefit plan, and Medicaid to cover peripheral artery disease screening tests once a year for people at higher risk of the disease.

Read the full bill text

These buttons carry the bill's own text, not the summaries below. Copy for LLM, View as markdown, and Send to AI use the Markdown version: the text as filed, then the summaries under a heading that names them as ours. View raw is the text alone.

The summaries below were written by an AI model (claude-sonnet-5) from the text of the bill and are not part of it. Quote the text, not the summary. The stored text is the Comm Sub version, the latest the General Assembly's website lists.

In plain language

Peripheral artery disease (PAD) is a form of atherosclerosis that narrows arteries in the legs and raises the risk of heart attack, stroke, amputation, and death. Many people at risk are never screened for it. This bill adds new sections to Georgia law requiring health benefit policies, the state employee health plan, and Medicaid to cover a PAD screening test, such as ankle-brachial index testing, at least once every 12 months for defined 'at-risk individuals,' including people 65 or older and younger people with diabetes or other risk factors. The coverage requirement for private and individual health benefit policies takes effect January 1, 2027, and applies to policies issued or renewed on or after that date, but does not apply to self-funded employer plans governed by federal law. The state employee plan and Medicaid coverage requirements only take effect if the General Assembly specifically appropriates funding for them in a future budget act.

What the bill does

  • Requires health benefit policies issued or renewed on or after January 1, 2027 to cover a peripheral artery disease screening test at least once every 12 months for at-risk individuals.
  • Defines 'at-risk individual' by age and risk factors such as diabetes, smoking history, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or family history of the disease.
  • Exempts self-funded employer health plans governed by federal law (ERISA) from the new coverage requirement.
  • Adds the same screening coverage requirement to the state employee health benefit plan, but only if the General Assembly appropriates specific funding for it.
  • Requires Georgia Medicaid to cover the same screening for at-risk recipients, but only if the General Assembly appropriates specific funding, and directs the state to seek federal approval if needed.
  • Bars insurers from applying special deductibles or copays to this screening that are not applied to other covered benefits.

Who it affects

People enrolled in private or group health insurance policies in Georgia, state government employees on the state health plan, Medicaid recipients, and insurers, health maintenance organizations, and other entities that issue health benefit policies in the state.

Why it matters

People at risk of peripheral artery disease, especially older adults, people with diabetes, smokers, and those with high blood pressure or cholesterol, would gain guaranteed access to a low-cost screening test that can catch the disease before it leads to amputation, stroke, or death.

Key provisions

  • Section 1 lists legislative findings on how common and dangerous peripheral artery disease is, including that about 200,000 Americans suffer avoidable amputations from it yearly.
  • Section 2 adds Code Section 33-24-59.37 requiring most health benefit policies to cover PAD screening tests yearly for at-risk individuals starting January 1, 2027, excluding ERISA self-funded plans.
  • Section 3 adds Code Section 45-18-4.3 requiring the state employee health plan to cover the same screening, effective only with a specific budget appropriation.
  • Section 4 adds Code Section 49-4-159.5 requiring Medicaid to cover the screening for at-risk recipients, effective only with a specific budget appropriation, and requires a state plan amendment if needed.
  • Section 5 sets the general effective date as January 1, 2027, but ties the state plan and Medicaid provisions to future appropriations acts.
  • Section 6 repeals conflicting laws.

From the bill

“A health benefit policy amended, delivered, issued, or renewed on or after January 1, 2027, shall provide coverage, no less than once every 12 months, for a peripheral artery disease screening test for any at-risk individual.”

This is the core coverage mandate for private health insurance policies in Georgia.

“An estimated 21 million Americans have PAD, and about 200,000 of them, who are disproportionately minorities, suffer avoidable amputations every year as a result of such disease”

A legislative finding explaining why the bill's sponsors say screening matters.

Discussed in meetings (12)

The House and Senate meetings that took this bill up, from their machine transcripts. Each account was written by Georgia Commons with AI and is not part of the record; the video is what was said.

  1. House floor session, February 10, 2026 (legislative day 16)

    From 1:45:57 · Watch on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel · Confirmed by the bill's status history (House Withdrawn, Recommitted)

    Summary by Georgia Commons: The member making the motion requested that the bill be transferred from the Insurance Committee to the Health Committee and said both committee chairs agreed. The clerk read its caption concerning insurance provisions. The House approved the transfer without objection; members did not discuss the bill’s substance.

  2. House Health Committee, February 23, 2026

    From 1:12:47 · Watch on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel

    Summary by Georgia Commons: Presenting a substitute for HB 1122, the sponsor described a one-time screening for peripheral artery disease, or narrowing arteries. The sponsor said the test is mainly for people around age 50 or older, uses an ankle cuff similar to a blood-pressure test, and takes about two minutes. No substantive questions were asked. The committee approved the substitute by voice vote.

  3. House Rules Committee, February 25, 2026

    From 1:09:16 · Watch on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel

    Summary by Georgia Commons: The sponsor described HB 1122 as providing a one-time test for peripheral artery disease in the lower extremities. The sponsor said testing could help prevent amputations and preserve quality of life, specifically mentioning veterans. No questions or scheduling decision followed.

  4. House Rules Committee, March 2, 2026

    From 0:19:38 · Watch on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel · Confirmed by the 2026 House Journal, p. 1696

    Summary by Georgia Commons: The committee placed HB 1122 on Tuesday’s calendar under modified rules. The motion was seconded, no opposition was heard, and there was no discussion of the bill’s contents.

  5. House floor session, March 3, 2026 (legislative day 26, PM)

    From 6:02:04 · Watch on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel · Confirmed by the bill's status history (House Postponed)

    Summary by Georgia Commons: The chair announced that HB 1122 would be postponed to the next legislative day. There was no substantive discussion.

  6. House floor session, March 4, 2026 (legislative day 27, PM, part 2)

    From 2:48:30 · Watch on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel · Confirmed by the bill's status history (House Postponed)

    Summary by Georgia Commons: The chair announced that HB 1122 would be postponed until the next legislative day, Friday. No substantive discussion occurred.

  7. House floor session, March 6, 2026 (legislative day 28, PM, part 1)

    From 1:47:25 · Watch on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel · Confirmed by the 2026 House Journal, p. 2127

    Summary by Georgia Commons: The sponsor described the bill as providing an annual peripheral artery disease screening for people roughly ages 50 through 64. The sponsor said the ankle blood-pressure-style test takes two or three minutes and could identify blocked arteries before amputation. The sponsor claimed that 22 million people died the previous year without this testing and that Atlanta and Augusta accounted for more than 22,000 amputations. The sponsor dedicated the proposal to a deceased former colleague. One member asked whether diabetes causes most amputations and early detection could prevent many of them; the sponsor agreed. Another asked whether early detection could save money over time, and the sponsor said yes. Two other members described family experiences with amputation or the disease and thanked the sponsor. The House adopted the committee substitute and passed the bill 167-2.

Status timeline

  1. 2026-03-09Senate Read and Referred (Senate)
  2. 2026-03-06House Passed/Adopted By Substitute (House)
  3. 2026-03-06House Third Readers (House)
  4. 2026-03-04House Postponed (House)
  5. 2026-03-03House Postponed (House)
  6. 2026-02-24House Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute (House)
  7. 2026-02-10House Withdrawn, Recommitted (House)
  8. 2026-02-04House Second Readers (House)
Show full history (10 actions)
  1. 2026-02-03House First Readers (House)
  2. 2026-02-02House Hopper (House)

Sponsors

  • Demetrius Douglas (D, HD-78)Primary sponsor
  • Mark Newton (R, HD-127)
  • Carolyn Hugley (D, HD-141)
  • Lee Hawkins (R, HD-27)
  • Karlton Howard (D, HD-129)

Votes

  1. PassedHouse voteMarch 6, 2026

    167 yea, 2 nay (4 not voting, 4 excused)

    PASSAGE: House Vote #664

Topics

  • health insurance coverage
  • peripheral artery disease
  • Medicaid benefits
  • state employee health plan
  • preventive screening

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Machine-readable https://georgiacommons.org/bills/2025-2026/hb1122.md · https://georgiacommons.org/bills/index.md · MCP https://mcp.georgiacommons.org/mcp

HB1122: Insurance; group or individual accident and sickness plans; provisions | Georgia Commons