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House · Passed · 2025-2026 Regular Session

HB 219: Professions and businesses; establish a professional health program to provide for monitoring and rehabilitation of impaired healthcare professionals; authorize

Last action July 1, 2026 · Effective Date

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.

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 Enrolled version, the latest the General Assembly's website lists.

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.”

This is the bill's definition of an impaired healthcare professional eligible for the new programs.

“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.”

Participants in the counseling board's program must pay for it themselves.

“This Code section shall be subject to appropriation by the General Assembly.”

The new program's operation depends on the legislature choosing to fund it.

Discussed in meetings (5)

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. Senate Regulated Industries and Utilities Committee, January 29, 2026

    From 0:20:37 · Watch on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel

    Summary by Georgia Commons: The sponsor said the bill would give nurses a voluntary treatment and monitoring program as an alternative to discipline for substance use, mental health or physical health problems. The sponsor said similar programs already serve physicians, dentists and pharmacists, and that participants would pay the program’s costs and undergo monitoring, including substance testing when appropriate. The sponsor described the goal as helping nurses return to work while addressing shortages of health professionals. In response to questions from the chair, the sponsor confirmed that most other states have similar programs. One committee member said feedback on the physician program showed it helped participants receive care and remain in practice. The chair said the committee had approved the proposal previously, but it had not reached a floor vote before the session ended. No amendments were proposed, and the committee unanimously approved a do-pass motion.

  2. Senate Rules Committee, March 9, 2026

    From 0:03:18 · Watch on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel

    Summary by Georgia Commons: The sponsor said the bill would offer nursing professionals an alternative disciplinary process that allows them to get help for impairment or physical problems, similar to options available to physicians and pharmacists. The sponsor said the committee heard the proposal the previous year but it did not advance. No questions or vote followed.

  3. Senate Rules Committee, March 10, 2026

    From 0:05:17 · Watch on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel

    Summary by Georgia Commons: The sponsor described HB 219 as an alternative discipline bill for nurses. No questions were asked. Later, a committee member requested that it be scheduled for the next day, and the committee unanimously approved including it on the floor calendar.

  4. Senate floor session, March 12, 2026 (legislative day 31)

    From 2:11:11 · Watch on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel · Confirmed by the bill's status history (Senate Third Read)

    Summary by Georgia Commons: The sponsor said HB 219 would let the nursing board and the board overseeing counselors, social workers and marriage and family therapists establish confidential treatment and monitoring programs for impaired professionals. The sponsor compared the proposal with an existing program for physicians and physician assistants, sharing examples of recovery from drug misuse. The sponsor said participants would pay the costs, undergo formal treatment and continuing monitoring, and face supervision requirements intended to protect patients. The sponsor argued that a pathway back to practice could preserve healthcare workers and encourage professionals to seek help rather than hide problems. No substantive questions or opposition followed. The Senate passed the bill 46 to 1.

Status timeline

  1. 2026-07-01Effective Date
  2. 2026-05-05Act 381
  3. 2026-05-05House Date Signed by Governor (House)
  4. 2026-04-06House Sent to Governor (House)
  5. 2026-03-12Senate Passed/Adopted (Senate)
  6. 2026-03-12Senate Third Read (Senate)
  7. 2026-02-02Senate Committee Favorably Reported (Senate)
  8. 2026-01-12Senate Recommitted (Senate)
Show full history (19 actions)
  1. 2026-01-12Senate Taken from Table (Senate)
  2. 2025-04-02Senate Tabled (Senate)
  3. 2025-03-18Senate Read Second Time (Senate)
  4. 2025-03-13Senate Committee Favorably Reported (Senate)
  5. 2025-03-06Senate Read and Referred (Senate)
  6. 2025-03-04House Passed/Adopted (House)
  7. 2025-03-04House Third Readers (House)
  8. 2025-02-26House Committee Favorably Reported (House)
  9. 2025-02-05House Second Readers (House)
  10. 2025-02-04House First Readers (House)
  11. 2025-02-03House Hopper (House)

Sponsors

  • Ron Stephens (R, HD-164)Primary sponsor
  • Viola Davis (D, HD-87)
  • David Clark (R, HD-100)
  • Chuck Hufstetler (R, SD-52)

Votes

  1. PassedHouse voteMarch 4, 2025

    168 yea, 0 nay (4 not voting, 8 excused)

    PASSAGE: House Vote #174

  2. PassedSenate voteMarch 12, 2026

    46 yea, 1 nay (4 not voting, 4 excused)

    PASSAGE: Senate Vote #711

Topics

  • healthcare licensing
  • nursing regulation
  • substance abuse treatment
  • professional discipline
  • mental health

Ask about this bill

Answers come from this document. Not legal advice.

Machine-readable https://georgiacommons.org/bills/2025-2026/hb219.md · https://georgiacommons.org/bills/index.md · MCP https://mcp.georgiacommons.org/mcp