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April 01, 2022

State of Georgia Seeking to Improve Parity Laws

Georgia House Speaker David Ralston is leading the charge to improve mental health care in his state. Georgia is ranked number 48 in access to mental health care and Speaker Ralston hopes that HB1013 will assist in solving that issue. More recently, a Georgia Senate panel scaled back many of the provisions of the bill following opposition from many conservative activists. Some of the changes to the initially proposed bill include not changing the state’s involuntary commitment criteria and softening the proposal for health insurers to manage behavioral health benefits the same as they do the benefits for medical/physical care. Additionally, the World Health Organization’s definitions for mental health conditions were removed. The bill, however, will now include HB570, which includes significant funding for mental health training for law enforcement.