Sb 18 - Direct Primary Care

• Jurisdiction: Georgia,United States
• Citation: Vol. 36 No. 1
• Publication year: 2019
• topic: Business of Law,Contracts,Insurance Law,Health Law

SB 18 - Direct Primary Care

Valentin H. Dubuis

Georgia State University College of Law, vdubuis@student.gsu.edu

Juliana Mesa

Georgia State University College of Law, julianamesa2@gmail.com

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INSURANCE

Kinds of Insurance; Limits of Risks; Reinsurance: Amend Chapter 7 of Title 33 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, Relating to Kinds of Insurance, Limits of Risks, and Reinsurance, so as to Provide Definitions; Provide that Direct Primary Care Agreements are not Insurance; Exempt Such Agreements from Regulation as Insurance; Provide for Discontinuance of Services Under Certain Circumstances; Provide a Short Title; Provide for Related Matters; Repeal Conflicting Laws; and for Other Purposes

Code Sections: O.C.G.A. § 33-7-2.1 (amended)

Bill Number: SB 18

Act Number: 47

Georgia Laws: 2019 Ga. Laws 217

Summary: This legislation allows physicians to offer specified care for a specific time pursuant to a fixed fee. The physician cannot require more than one year's payment upfront, and the agreement has to be terminable by either party with thirty days' notice. Physicians do not have to provide care if the fee has not been paid or the patient has committed fraud, failed to adhere to treatment, or is in emotional or physical danger.

Effective Date: July 1, 2019

History

In 2017, Georgia had the fourth-highest uninsured rate in the nation, with many of its citizens unable to pay the high premiums.¹

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According to the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), over 3.2 million Georgians live in areas facing a severe physician shortage.² Sixty-three counties have zero pediatric physicians and nine counties lack any physicians of any kind.³ Consequently, Georgia's system is overburdened; patients can expect long wait times and increasingly less face-to-face time with doctors.⁴

In an attempt to address this issue, Georgia passed Senate Bill (SB) 18, the Direct Primary Care Act. The goal of this bill is to give patients another choice when deciding on their medical care and allow physicians to spend more time with their patients by cutting out the time spent dealing with patients' insurance.⁵ The Direct Primary Care Act allows patients to work directly with physicians, cutting out the insurance companies as the middlemen.⁶ Physicians contract directly with patients for specified in-office services at a set monthly rate.⁷ Senator Kay Kirkpatrick (R-32nd) explained:

It is a way for people who can't afford high dollar plans to get the majority of their care handled for a reasonable and predictable amount of money and is also a way for people to keep their primary care doctor if they change plans or if their doctor is not in their insurance network.⁸

A version of the bill passed the Senate in 2018 but died in the House.⁹ Senator Kirkpatrick reintroduced the bill in 2019.¹⁰ The new version addressed the concerns of the Chairperson of the House Insurance Committee, Representative Richard Smith (R-134th), who did not support the 2018 bill because of concerns that the bill would

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confuse patients by making them think they could apply the monthly fee of their direct primary care plan to their deductible.¹¹ Senator Kirkpatrick addressed these concerns by making the bill more well-defined, clarifying that direct primary care is not insurance.¹²

Twenty-four states currently have primary care laws, and patients were already entering direct primary care arrangements with physicians throughout the State of Georgia before passage of the bill.¹³ Because there was no law addressing the issue, physicians feared that "all of [the] sudden, some agency, the Department of Insurance, for example, would say, [physicians] can't do this anymore."¹⁴ So, although the bill did not change how direct primary care providers were conducting their business, it gave providers the peace of mind to continue working with their patients without fear of being regulated under insurance laws.¹⁵ The bill provides "legal clarity" for those practicing under this model by reinforcing that there will be no oversight by Georgia's Insurance Commissioner.¹⁶

The bill garnered support from doctors, activists, and even insurance underwriters who attended the Georgia Senate Committee on Health and Human Services meeting on SB 18.¹⁷ The Georgia Association of Health Underwriters, a 500-member organization of insurance agents in Georgia, supported the bill because it helped fill the gap for those who do not have access to insurance and those who do not have access to a primary care physician.¹⁸ Tony West, the Deputy State Director for Americans for Prosperity of Georgia (AFP Georgia), spoke in support of the bill, citing the severe physician shortage in Georgia as one of the main issues the bill can address.¹⁹

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AFP Georgia supported the bill as a way to relieve physicians of the burden that the third-party insurance system imposes on doctors.²⁰

Doctors can spend over half of their workday billing and negotiating with insurance companies, leaving less time to care for patients.²¹ This model was supported by doctors, especially direct primary care doctors, who were also present at the committee meeting. Dr. Erinn Harris, representing the Direct Primary Care Alliance, presented the benefits of working under this model.²² Before the direct primary care model, she only spent about five to seven minutes with her patients at a time because of all the time she spent dealing with insurance issues.²³ This model has allowed Dr. Harris and her colleagues to spend more time with their patients and form the doctor-patient relationship that Dr. Harris felt had been lost.²⁴ Governor Brian Kemp (R) ultimately signed SB 18 into law, giving physicians and their patients the peace of mind needed to continue entering into direct primary care agreements.²⁵

Bill Tracking of SB 18

Consideration and Passage by the Senate

SB 18 was introduced by Senators Kay Kirkpatrick (R-32nd), Burt Jones (R-25th), Ben Watson (R-1st), Dean Burke (R-11th), Ed Harbison (D-15th), and Chuck Hufstetler (R-52nd).²⁶ The Senate read the bill for the first time on January 17, 2019, and Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan (R) committed the bill to the Senate Health and Human Services Committee on the same day.²⁷ On February 14, 2019, the Committee amended the bill in part and favorably reported the bill by Committee substitute.²⁸ The Committee substitute added a single section requiring a prorata refund for any unearned fees upon

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cancellation of a direct primary care agreement.²⁹ The Committee introduced these changes after Senator Bill Cowsert (R-46th) and others expressed concerns that the bill, as written, was not clear as to the consequences of early termination.³⁰

On February 20, 2019, the bill was recommitted to the Senate Rules Committee.³¹ On February, 21, 2019, the Rules Committee amended the bill in part and favorably reported the bill by substitute.³² The Rules Committee added clarifying language ensuring that the physician must give the patient at least thirty days' notice of termination to allow the patient time to find another healthcare provider.³³ Similarly, the patient would be required to give the physician notice of no more than thirty days.³⁴ The Senate read the bill for the third time on February 26, 2019.³⁵ The Senate then passed the Rules Committee substitute on February 26, 2019, by a vote of 55 to 0.³⁶

Consideration and...