Georgia Legislative Watch

State Sen. David Shafer (R - Duluth) introduced two bills today designed to bring reform to the financially-strapped Grady Memorial Hospital.

Senate Bill 353, the Public Hospital Integrity Act, would seek to prevent those individuals that may have financial ties to a public hospital like Grady or any major hospital vendor from serving on a governing board of a public hospital.

Sen. Shafer said, “This legislation will help ensure that the Grady board’s first loyalty is to Grady as an institution, not those who do business with Grady.”

State Sen. Vincent Fort (D - Atlanta), a co-sponsor of Shafer’s proposal, said the bill was a good first step.

“The conflict of interest bill is very, very important,” Fort said. “I am for stopping conflicts of interest.”

Sen. Shafer’s other bill, Senate Resolution 722, would create a Grady Oversight Committee composed of three members of the state Senate and three members of the state House. The Grady Oversight Committee would be charged with providing legislative oversight of the “operations, contracts, safety, financing, organization, and structure of the Fulton-DeKalb Hospital Authority” along with the Grady Health System and Grady Hospital itself.

In describing the bill, Shafer said the language of the resolution was taken from the bill that created the MARTOC oversight committee.

“Those who run Grady have fought legislative oversight whenever it has been proposed,” Shafer said. “But when they inevitably get into financial trouble, they sing the same old lament of legislative neglect.”

Shafer pointed out that, in 1999, a similar bill to create a Grady Oversight Committee passed the Senate but stalled in the House.

[UPDATE] Here is a copy of the press release sent out by the State Senate on behalf of Sen. David Shafer.

SB78 - Community Health, Dept. of; powers, duties and functions; change certain provisions
Sponsored by: Hamrick,William 30th

A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Title 31 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to health, so as to change certain provisions relating to the Department of Community Health’s powers, duties, and functions; to require hospitals and medical facilities to make certain information available on their Internet websites; to require hospitals and medical facilities to provide estimates of charges to patients; to require hospital authorities to make certain information available on their Internet websites; to require hospital authorities to provide estimates of charges to patients; to provide for the collection and dissemination of certain information by the Department of Human Resources; to provide for related matters; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes.

HB203 - Department of Human Resources; task force onchronic kidney disease; establish
Sponsored by: Maddox,Gene 172nd

A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Chapter 2 of Title 31 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to the Department of Human Resources, so as to provide for the establishment of a task force to develop a plan for education on chronic kidney disease; to provide for membership and appointment of members to the task force; to provide for duties and responsibilities; to provide for reports and recommendations from such task force; to provide for related matters; to provide for automatic repeal; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes.

SB73 - Health Care Plans; continued access to care; enrollees; definitions
Sponsored by: Shafer,David 48th

A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Article 3 of Chapter 20A of Title 33 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to managed health care plans, so as to provide for continued access to care for all managed health care plan enrollees subsequent to the termination of physician and facility contracts; to provide definitions; to provide for related matters; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes.

SB66 - Abortion; medical equipment for facilities; procedures
Sponsored by: Schaefer,Nancy 50th

A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Article 5 of Chapter 12 of Title 16 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to abortion, so as to require access to certain medical equipment for facilities where abortions are performed and facilities of physicians who refer for abortions; to require such facilities to perform certain procedures prior to performing an abortion; to provide for certain forms; to provide a penalty for violations; to provide for related matters; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes.