SB 130: Health; medical education funding and the service cancelable loan program; expand

Georgia currently pays hospital authorities and certain 'designated teaching hospitals' up to $10,000 per year for each medical resident they train, to help cover the cost of physician education. This bill broadens that system in two main ways. First, it renames 'designated teaching hospital' as 'designated institution' and expands the definition to include medical facilities with a Medicare/Medicaid certification number that run an accredited residency or fellowship program, not just traditional teaching hospitals. It also extends the per-physician funding and rulemaking authority of the Department of Community Health to cover fellows, physicians training in specialized fellowship programs after residency, alongside residents. Second, the bill changes Georgia's rural service cancelable loan program, found in Title 31 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, so that physicians still in residency or fellowship training can apply for loans, not just physicians who have already finished their medical education. Those physicians would agree to repay the loans by practicing in underserved rural areas of Georgia.

• Expands the definition of 'designated teaching hospital' to 'designated institution,' adding medical facilities with a Medicare/Medicaid certification number that run ACGME-accredited residency or fellowship programs.
• Adds fellows (physicians in ACGME-accredited fellowship programs) to the categories of trainees for whom the state pays up to $10,000 per year to hospital authorities or designated institutions.
• Expands the purpose of the rural service cancelable loan program to include making loans to physicians currently in residency or fellowship programs, not just those who already finished their training.
• Sets qualification rules requiring resident and fellowship physicians who get these loans to be U.S. citizens or nationals enrolled in an ACGME accredited program.
• Keeps the existing cap that no additional teaching hospitals or designated institutions can be added to the funding program until enough state funds are available.

Hospital authorities and teaching hospitals that train medical residents, newly eligible medical facilities with Medicare/Medicaid certification that run fellowship programs, medical residents and fellows, and the Department of Community Health and Georgia Board of Health Care Workforce, which administer the funding and loan programs. Rural Georgia communities that rely on the loan program to recruit doctors are also affected.

More types of medical facilities could receive state funding for training physicians, and doctors still in residency or fellowship training could get loans in exchange for agreeing to practice in underserved rural Georgia areas, potentially widening the pipeline of doctors available to those communities.

• Section 1 rewrites O.C.G.A. § 31-7-95, replacing 'designated teaching hospital' with 'designated institution' and adding medical facilities with a CMS certification number that run ACGME accredited residency or fellowship programs.
• Section 1 adds a definition of 'fellow' as a physician training in an ACGME accredited fellowship program at a hospital authority or designated institution.
• Section 1 extends the $10,000 per year, per trainee payment from the Department of Community Health to cover fellows in addition to residents, subject to pro rata reduction if funds are insufficient.
• Section 2 revises O.C.G.A. § 31-34-2 to add physicians in residency or fellowship programs to the groups eligible for loans under the rural service cancelable loan program.
• Section 3 revises O.C.G.A. § 31-34-4 to require resident or fellowship physician loan recipients to be U.S. citizens or nationals enrolled in an ACGME accredited program.
• Section 4 repeals conflicting laws.

1. 2025-05-13Effective Date 2025-07-01
2. 2025-05-13Act 185
3. 2025-05-13Senate Date Signed by Governor (Senado)
4. 2025-04-07Senate Sent to Governor (Senado)
5. 2025-03-31House Passed/Adopted (Cámara de Representantes)
6. 2025-03-31House Third Readers (Cámara de Representantes)
7. 2025-03-20House Committee Favorably Reported (Cámara de Representantes)
8. 2025-02-28House Second Readers (Cámara de Representantes)

• Mike Hodges (R, SD-003)Patrocinador principal
• Shawn Still (R, SD-048)
• Ben Watson (R, SD-001)
• Kay Kirkpatrick (R, SD-032)
• Billy Hickman (R, SD-004)
• Rick Townsend (R, HD-179)

1. AprobadaVotación: Senado26 de febrero de 2025

   52 a favor, 4 en contra

   Passage: Senate Vote #93

2. AprobadaVotación: Cámara de Representantes31 de marzo de 2025

   155 a favor, 7 en contra (6 sin votar, 12 ausentes)

   Passage: House Vote #369

• medical education funding
• rural health care
• physician residency and fellowship
• medical loan programs
• hospital funding