As New Yorkers are busy preparing for the holiday season, folks down in Georgia are looking ahead to a slate of new laws set to kick off with the new year. While it's common for laws to take effect on January 1, 2024, the majority of Georgia's legislation traditionally goes live on July 1—the start of their legislative session. However, a key piece of legislation is queued up to change that pattern as 2024 rolls in.
According to 11Alive, the Peach State will see the Consumer Access to Contracted Healthcare (CATCH) Act take center stage starting January 1, 2024. This law aims to shore up healthcare access, making sure insured Georgians can find various care services within a practical reach of home. The CATCH Act "will ensure consumer access to quality healthcare by setting adequacy standards for network plans offered by an insurer... to provide for standards for network plans... to prohibit an insurer from denying preauthorization for healthcare services to be performed by a participating provider solely because the referral was made by a nonparticipating provider," among other provisions.
Other tweaks to state regulations are set to come into effect come New Year's Day. These include HB 120, which sets standards for issuing limited driving permits to certain offenders, HB 128, designed to enhance representation of minority, women, and veteran-owned businesses in state contracts, and HB 175, which updates federal regulations references regarding the safe operation of commercial motor vehicles and carriers.
Changes aren’t stopping there; Georgia is also set to lift the burden of annual license fees from ambulance services, as outlined in HB 453, a move to support these crucial emergency services. Meanwhile, HB 528 is looking to make life a little simpler for consumers by enacting the 'Georgia Online Automatic Renewal Transparency Act,' which, as noted by FOX 5 Atlanta, aims to "make it easier to end unwanted auto-renewal subscriptions online and to protect restaurants from third-party delivery services by requiring a written agreement between the restaurants and the third party."
