Lawmakers continue to work through FY 2019 budget process
The Georgia House of Representatives passed its FY 2019 budget recommendations, which include…
– $1.42 million for the development of a mental health crisis services and suicide prevention mobile application, which would be done in coordination with the Georgia Crisis and Access hotline
– $500,000 for federally-qualified health center start-up grants for a primary care center in Bryan County and a behavioral health center in Emanuel County
– $250,000 to establish a rural health systems innovation center
– $404,000 to increase the triage payment rate by $10 for urban hospitals and $20 for rural hospitals; federal funds would bring this total to $1.26 million
– $1.73 million for 99 new residency slots in primary care
– $150,000 for two rural surgical fellowships at St. Joseph's/Candler Hospital
– $750,000 for new fellowship positions at Augusta University in vision (retinal and glaucoma), cancer (gynecological oncology), and neurology (Alzheimer’s, stroke/vascular and aging)
– $120,000 for Gateway Behavioral Health for the second year of a psychiatry residency program
– $180,000 in funds from the Georgia Board for Physician Workforce’s ‘Physicians for Rural Areas Program’ for the ‘Memorial Accelerated Track Program’
– $40,000 for a statewide residency recruitment fair, as recommended by the House Rural Development Council
– $130,000 for insurance premium assistance for physicians who practice counties that have one or less physicians
– $2 million to address maternal mortality in Georgia
– $150,000 for the Sickle Cell Foundation of Georgia for outreach offices to improve access to care and reduce unnecessary emergency room costs
– $888,000 for the Georgia Cancer Control Consortium to fund the Georgia Center for Oncology Research and Education (CORE) and the five regional cancer coalitions
– $75,000 to implement diabetes prevention programs in the five counties with the highest need
– $50,000 for the Grady Infectious Disease Program to support retention in care efforts for patients with HIV/AIDS
– $216,000 to improve perinatal hepatitis C surveillance, linkage to care and testing to address the increase of the hepatitis C virus in the state that has been attributed to the opioid abuse epidemic
The committee also added language requiring the Georgia Department of Community Health (DCH) to include a provision in its contracts with managed care plans and the State Health Benefit Plan requiring plan sponsor to report the following information on an annual basis: all pharmacy claims; the amount paid to the pharmacy provider per claim, including but not limited to the cost of drug reimbursement; dispensing fees; copayments; and the amount charged to the plan sponsor for each claim by its pharmacy benefit manager (if there is a difference between these amounts, the plan sponsor shall report an itemization of all administrative fees, rebates, or processing charges associated with the claim). DCH would also be asked to submit a report that is based on the aggregate data that addresses the initiative’s implementation and its impact on program expenditures to the chairs of the House Appropriations and Senate Appropriations committees by December 31 of each year.
The House version of the FY 2019 budget must now go through an extensive Senate reconciliation process.
