HB 1299: Health; allow hospital authorities to acquire, develop, operate, or equip certain outpatient healthcare facilities

Under current Georgia law, county and municipal hospital authorities operate hospitals and related projects but face limits on how they structure ownership of outpatient facilities. This bill amends O.C.G.A. § 31-7-75 and § 31-7-77 to create a new category called a 'rural joint venture outpatient healthcare facility,' a freestanding facility offering diagnostic, treatment, or rehabilitative care for fewer than 24 continuous hours, excluding hospitals, nursing homes, assisted living communities, and personal care homes. A hospital authority could acquire, develop, operate, or equip such a facility in the same rural county (defined as a county with fewer than 50,000 residents per the 2020 census, excluding military personnel and dependents on a military base) as an existing hospital it owns or operates. The facility would be jointly owned with a single group of physicians practicing the same medical specialty, with the hospital authority required to hold at least 51 percent ownership and the physician group no more than 49 percent, and only when the authority determines it would serve the community's public health needs.

• Adds a new power (paragraph 28) letting hospital authorities acquire, develop, operate, or equip a 'rural joint venture outpatient healthcare facility' jointly with a single physician group.
• Requires the hospital authority to own at least 51 percent of any such joint venture facility, capping the physician group's share at 49 percent.
• Defines 'rural county' as one with fewer than 50,000 residents under the 2020 census, excluding military base personnel and dependents from that count.
• Defines 'rural joint venture outpatient healthcare facility' as a freestanding facility offering under 24 hours of diagnostic, treatment, or rehabilitative care, excluding hospitals, nursing homes, assisted living communities, and personal care homes.
• Creates an exception in O.C.G.A. § 31-7-77 allowing a rural hospital or its hospital authority to pursue this joint venture arrangement despite the law's general nonprofit and revenue-use restrictions.

Rural county hospital authorities and the hospitals they own or operate, physician groups practicing a single medical specialty who might co-own an outpatient facility, and residents of rural Georgia counties who use outpatient diagnostic, treatment, or rehabilitative services.

The bill would give rural hospital authorities a new tool to partner financially with local physician groups on outpatient facilities, potentially expanding access to diagnostic or rehabilitative care in rural areas while keeping majority control and ownership with the public hospital authority rather than private physicians.

• Section 1 adds paragraph (28) to O.C.G.A. § 31-7-75, authorizing hospital authorities to acquire, develop, operate, or equip a rural joint venture outpatient healthcare facility with ownership split at least 51 percent authority and up to 49 percent physician group.
• Section 2 adds definitions of 'rural county' and 'rural joint venture outpatient healthcare facility' to O.C.G.A. § 31-7-77.
• Section 2 adds subsection (d) to O.C.G.A. § 31-7-77, creating an exception to the general revenue-use restrictions so rural hospitals or hospital authorities can pursue these joint venture facilities.
• Section 3 repeals any conflicting state laws.

1. 2026-03-03House Committee Favorably Reported (House)
2. 2026-02-18House Second Readers (House)
3. 2026-02-17House First Readers (House)
4. 2026-02-12House Hopper (House)

• Rick Jasperse (R, HD-011)Primary sponsor
• James Burchett (R, HD-176)
• Angie O'Steen (R, HD-169)
• Matt Barton (R, HD-005)
• Stan Gunter (R, HD-008)
• Matthew Gambill (R, HD-015)

• hospital authorities
• rural healthcare
• outpatient facilities
• physician joint ventures
• Georgia health law