HB 649: Insurance; coverage for comprehensive maternal mental health screening and care; provide

Georgia currently has no statewide requirement that insurance plans cover maternal mental health screenings or that healthcare providers screen pregnant and postpartum women for conditions like depression and anxiety. This bill, called the Georgia Maternal Mental Health Improvement Act, would change that. It requires private health benefit policies to cover medically necessary maternal mental health screenings and follow-up care and treatment, whether delivered in person or by telehealth. Separately, it adds a new Medicaid law requiring screenings for perinatal mood and anxiety disorders at specific points, such as the first prenatal visit, around 28 to 32 weeks, at delivery, at the six-week postpartum visit, and after a pregnancy loss. Providers must also give patients educational materials and referral information. The Department of Community Health must set up quality tracking, a three-year pilot program for remote screening in rural and high-risk areas, and annual reports from 2026 through 2028. The whole Act only takes effect January 1, 2026, and only if the legislature specifically appropriates funding for it.

• Requires private health insurance plans in Georgia to cover medically necessary maternal mental health screenings during pregnancy and up to 12 months postpartum, plus treatment for positive screens.
• Adds a new Medicaid rule requiring healthcare providers to screen pregnant and postpartum women for perinatal mood and anxiety disorders at six specified points, including the first prenatal visit and the six-week postpartum visit.
• Allows patients to refuse most screenings unless a physician determines the patient is mentally incompetent.
• Requires providers to give patients educational materials on signs and symptoms of perinatal mood and anxiety disorders.
• Directs the Department of Community Health to create a quality metrics program tracking screening rates, treatment outcomes, and disparities by race, ethnicity, and geography, and to run a three-year pilot program for remote screening starting by January 1, 2026.
• Makes the entire Act effective January 1, 2026, only if the General Assembly separately appropriates money for it.

Pregnant and postpartum women in Georgia, private health insurers and their policyholders, Medicaid recipients, obstetricians and other physicians, nurse midwives, psychiatrists, psychologists, licensed counselors and therapists, pediatricians who see infants up to three months old, and the Department of Community Health.

If funded, insured Georgians would gain guaranteed coverage for maternal mental health screening and treatment, and Medicaid patients would receive routine screenings at set points around pregnancy and birth, potentially catching depression or anxiety earlier and connecting families to referrals and telehealth care, especially in rural areas.

• Section 3 adds Code Section 33-1-28 requiring all health benefit policies issued or renewed in Georgia on or after January 1, 2026 to cover maternal mental health screening and related treatment, in person or via telehealth.
• Section 4 adds Code Section 49-4-159.5 requiring screenings for perinatal mood and anxiety disorders at six specific points from the first prenatal visit through a child's three-month pediatric visit.
• Section 4 lets patients refuse screening unless a provider finds them mentally incompetent, and requires referral information and educational materials be provided.
• Section 4 directs the Department of Community Health to build a quality metrics program covering process, outcome, equity, and patient experience measures.
• Section 4 requires a three-year pilot program for remote maternal mental health screening in high-risk and rural populations, starting no later than January 1, 2026.
• Section 4 requires annual reports to legislative health committees from July 1, 2026 through July 1, 2028, and allows the department to seek a Medicaid state plan amendment or waiver if needed.
• Section 5 makes the entire Act contingent on the General Assembly specifically appropriating funds for it before January 1, 2026.

1. 2025-04-04House Withdrawn, Recommitted (House)
2. 2025-03-06House Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute (House)
3. 2025-02-27House Second Readers (House)
4. 2025-02-26House First Readers (House)
5. 2025-02-26House Hopper (House)

• Karen Bennett (D, HD-94)Primary sponsor
• Mary Margaret Oliver (D, HD-84)
• Carolyn Hugley (D, HD-141)
• Todd Jones (R, HD-25)

• maternal health
• postpartum depression
• health insurance coverage
• Medicaid
• mental health screening