Georgia CommonsHB 219: Professions and businesses; establish a professional health program to provide for monitoring and rehabilitation of impaired healthcare professionals; authorize
Last action May 5, 2026 · Effective Date 2026-07-01
House Bill 219 lets two Georgia licensing boards, the Composite Board of Professional Counselors, Social Workers, and Marriage and Family Therapists and the Board of Nursing, set up confidential programs to monitor and help rehabilitate impaired healthcare professionals.
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 Enrolled version, the latest LegiScan holds.
In plain language
Georgia law did not previously give the counseling and nursing licensing boards explicit authority to run monitoring and rehabilitation programs for professionals impaired by drugs, alcohol, or mental or physical conditions. This bill adds that authority for both the Georgia Composite Board of Professional Counselors, Social Workers, and Marriage and Family Therapists and the Georgia Board of Nursing. Each board may contract with an outside entity, such as a professional association, to run a professional health program that monitors and helps rehabilitate impaired license holders so they can safely continue practicing. Records from these programs are made confidential and shielded from Georgia's open records law and from court subpoenas or discovery. Participants must pay their own program costs, and contracted entities get immunity from civil or criminal liability for work done under the contract. Both new programs depend on money the General Assembly chooses to appropriate, plus any private funding, grants, or in-kind gifts the boards can arrange.
What the bill does
- Authorizes the Georgia Composite Board of Professional Counselors, Social Workers, and Marriage and Family Therapists to create a program monitoring and rehabilitating impaired license holders.
- Authorizes the Georgia Board of Nursing to create a similar monitoring and rehabilitation program for impaired nurses.
- Lets both boards contract with outside organizations to run these programs and share pertinent professional information with those organizations.
- Makes program records confidential, exempt from Georgia's open records law (O.C.G.A. Title 50, Chapter 18, Article 4), and unavailable for court subpoenas or discovery.
- Requires impaired professionals who join a program to pay their own costs and grants contracted entities immunity from civil or criminal liability for contract work.
- Makes both programs dependent on funding the legislature appropriates, plus private donations, grants, or in-kind gifts.
Who it affects
Licensed counselors, social workers, marriage and family therapists, and nurses in Georgia whose ability to practice safely may be affected by substance use or mental or physical health conditions, the two licensing boards, and any outside organizations that contract to run these monitoring programs.
Why it matters
Impaired healthcare professionals would have a formal, confidential path to get help and possibly keep their licenses instead of facing disciplinary action alone, while the public benefits from monitoring meant to ensure these professionals are safe to treat patients. Program costs fall on participants and depend on funding the legislature provides.
Key provisions
- Section 1 adds Code Section 43-10A-24, letting the counseling and social work board define 'impaired' and create a professional health program through a contracted entity.
- Section 1 lets that board share confidential professional information with the contracted entity and shields program records from open records requests, subpoenas, and discovery.
- Section 2 adds a new Article 5 (Code Sections 43-26-70 through 43-26-74) giving the Board of Nursing the same authority for nurses, including the same confidentiality and liability protections.
- Both new provisions require impaired professionals to pay their own participation costs and grant contracted entities immunity from civil or criminal liability for contract work.
- Both programs are made 'subject to appropriation by the General Assembly,' meaning they depend on state funding decisions, though boards may also seek private funds, grants, or in-kind gifts.
- Section 3 repeals any conflicting laws.
From the bill
“'Impaired' means the inability of a healthcare professional to practice with reasonable skill and safety to patients by reason of illness or use of alcohol, drugs, narcotics, chemicals, or any other type of material, or as a result of any mental or physical condition.”
“An impaired healthcare professional who participates in a professional health program conducted pursuant to this Code section shall bear all costs associated with such participation.”
“This Code section shall be subject to appropriation by the General Assembly.”
Status timeline
- Effective Date 2026-07-01
- Act 381
- House Date Signed by Governor (House)
- House Sent to Governor (House)
- Senate Passed/Adopted (Senate)
- Senate Third Read (Senate)
- Senate Committee Favorably Reported (Senate)
- Senate Recommitted (Senate)
Show full history (19 actions)
- Senate Taken from Table (Senate)
- Senate Tabled (Senate)
- Senate Read Second Time (Senate)
- Senate Committee Favorably Reported (Senate)
- Senate Read and Referred (Senate)
- House Passed/Adopted (House)
- House Third Readers (House)
- House Committee Favorably Reported (House)
- House Second Readers (House)
- House First Readers (House)
- House Hopper (House)
Sponsors
- Ron Stephens (R, HD-164)
- Viola Davis (D, HD-087)
- David Clark (R, HD-100)
- Chuck Hufstetler (R, SD-052)
Votes
- House voteMarch 4, 2025
168 yea, 0 nay (4 not voting, 8 absent)
- Senate voteMarch 12, 2026
46 yea, 1 nay (4 not voting, 4 absent)
Topics
- healthcare licensing
- nursing regulation
- substance abuse treatment
- professional discipline
- mental health