SB 113: Georgia Composite Board of Professional Counselors, Social Workers, and Marriage and Family Therapists; establish a professional health program; authorize

Georgia law does not currently give the counseling and social work licensing board or the nursing board explicit authority to run their own programs to help impaired licensees get treatment while protecting patients. This bill adds new sections to Title 43 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated letting both boards create 'professional health programs' aimed at monitoring and rehabilitating healthcare professionals who cannot safely practice because of substance use or a mental or physical condition. Each board could contract with an outside entity, such as a professional association, to run the program. Records generated through the program would be confidential and shielded from Georgia's open records law and from court subpoenas or discovery. Professionals who take part would have to pay their own costs, and contracted entities would get immunity from civil or criminal liability for work performed under the contract. Both new programs depend on the General Assembly appropriating funding, though the boards could also accept private donations, grants, or in-kind gifts.

• Authorizes the Georgia Composite Board of Professional Counselors, Social Workers, and Marriage and Family Therapists to create a program monitoring and rehabilitating impaired licensees.
• Authorizes the Georgia Board of Nursing to create a similar program for impaired nurses.
• Lets each board contract with an outside organization to run the program and share professional information with that organization at the board's discretion.
• Makes program records, findings, and reports confidential, exempt from Georgia's open records law, and unavailable for court subpoenas or discovery.
• Requires impaired professionals who take part to pay all costs themselves.
• Gives contracted entities immunity from civil or criminal liability for work done under the contract, and makes both programs dependent on state funding or accepted donations.

Licensed professional counselors, social workers, marriage and family therapists, and nurses in Georgia; the Georgia Composite Board of Professional Counselors, Social Workers, and Marriage and Family Therapists and the Georgia Board of Nursing; and outside organizations or professional associations that might contract to run these monitoring programs.

Professionals struggling with substance use or health conditions could get a confidential path to treatment and monitoring instead of facing immediate disciplinary exposure, while patients would still be protected through oversight of their fitness to practice. The confidentiality provisions mean these records would stay shielded from public records requests and legal discovery.

• Section 1 adds Code Section 43-10A-24, letting the counseling, social work, and marriage and family therapy board create a professional health program and contract with an outside entity to run it.
• Section 1 defines 'impaired' as being unable to practice safely due to illness, substance use, or a mental or physical condition.
• Section 1 declares program records confidential, exempt from Georgia's open records law (O.C.G.A. Article 4 of Chapter 18 of Title 50), and unavailable for subpoena or discovery.
• Section 1 requires impaired professionals to bear all costs of participating and grants contracted entities immunity from civil or criminal liability.
• Section 2 adds a new Article 5 to Chapter 26 of Title 43 (Code Sections 43-26-70 through 43-26-74) creating a parallel program for the Georgia Board of Nursing with the same confidentiality, cost, and immunity terms.
• Both new programs are made subject to appropriation by the General Assembly, though the boards may accept private funding, grants, or in-kind gifts.
• Section 3 repeals conflicting laws.

1. 2025-02-06Senate Read and Referred (Senate)
2. 2025-02-05Senate Hopper (Senate)

• Clint Dixon (R, SD-045)Primary sponsor
• Ben Watson (R, SD-001)
• Matt Brass (R, SD-006)
• Ricky Williams (R, SD-025)
• Jason Anavitarte (R, SD-031)
• Carden Summers (R, SD-013)
• Drew Echols (R, SD-049)
• Russ Goodman (R, SD-008)

• healthcare licensing
• nursing regulation
• substance abuse treatment
• professional licensing boards
• open records exemptions