SB 258: Access to Midwife-led Birth Centers Grant Program; establish

Georgia currently has a chapter of law governing midwifery, but this bill repeals it and replaces it with a much more detailed framework. It creates the Access to Midwife-led Birth Centers Grant Program inside the Department of Public Health, which would award annual competitive grants to organizations running birth centers or building new ones in counties that lack one. Grants could cover up to 85 percent of a provider's prior-year revenue or 85 percent of the cost to build a new center, and could pay for services like prenatal care, nutrition help, housing and job assistance, child care, and postpartum visits for a year after birth. The bill also creates a new licensing chapter for midwives (the Georgia Licensed Midwife Act) with a six-member Advisory Board for Licensed Midwives appointed by the Governor. It sets education, certification, and background check requirements for licensure, spells out what licensed midwives can and cannot do, requires written disclosures and informed consent from clients, and requires health insurers, including Medicaid, to cover and reimburse midwife-provided maternity care at the same rate as other providers. The law would take effect as soon as the Governor signs it.

• Establishes the Access to Midwife-led Birth Centers Grant Program in the Department of Public Health to fund birth centers and maternal care providers.
• Repeals Georgia's existing midwifery practice chapter (Chapter 26 of Title 31) and designates it as reserved.
• Creates a new licensing chapter (the Georgia Licensed Midwife Act) requiring anyone using the title 'licensed midwife' to be licensed under the new rules starting July 1, 2025.
• Creates a six-member Advisory Board for Licensed Midwives appointed by the Governor to set licensing standards, investigate complaints, and discipline midwives.
• Requires health insurance plans, including Medicaid, to cover maternity care by licensed midwives and reimburse it at the same rate as other maternity providers.
• Sets grant amounts at up to 85 percent of a provider's prior-year revenue or 85 percent of new birth center construction costs.

Midwives, both certified nurse midwives and certified professional midwives, who would need a new license to practice; pregnant women and new mothers seeking care at birth centers; nonprofit organizations that run or want to build birth centers; the Department of Public Health; and health insurers, including Medicaid, that cover maternity care.

Georgians in counties without birth centers could gain access to new midwife-led facilities funded partly by state grants, and midwives would face a new, more detailed licensing and disciplinary system. Insurers would have to pay midwives the same rates as other maternity providers, potentially changing how families pay for and access birth care.

• Section 1 adds a new Article 4 to Title 31 (O.C.G.A. § 31-2A-60 et seq.) creating the grant program, defining eligible services, and setting audit and reporting requirements, including an annual report to the General Assembly due by September 30 each year.
• Section 1 caps grant awards at 85 percent of a provider's annual revenue or 85 percent of new birth center construction costs (O.C.G.A. § 31-2A-64).
• Section 1 requires providers seeking grants to have at least one year of midwife-led care experience and a plan to build a center in an underserved county (O.C.G.A. § 31-2A-65).
• Section 2 repeals Georgia's existing midwifery practice chapter (Chapter 26 of Title 31) entirely.
• Section 3 creates the Georgia Licensed Midwife Act (new Chapter 24B of Title 43), establishing licensure requirements, the Advisory Board for Licensed Midwives, and disciplinary powers including fines of $100 to $500 per violation (O.C.G.A. § 43-24B-9).
• Section 3 requires licensed midwives to give clients written disclosures and obtain signed informed consent before providing services, retained for at least six years (O.C.G.A. § 43-24B-10).
• Section 3 requires health insurance and Medicaid coverage of licensed midwife maternity care at the same reimbursement rate as other providers (O.C.G.A. § 43-24B-16).
• Section 4 makes the Act effective immediately upon the Governor's signature or upon becoming law without the Governor's signature.

1. 2025-02-27Senate Read and Referred (Senado)
2. 2025-02-26Senate Hopper (Senado)

• Donzella James (D, SD-028)Patrocinador principal

• midwifery licensing
• maternal health
• birth centers
• health insurance coverage
• Medicaid