Who We Are

The “Georgia Ortho-PAC”, is the Political Action Arm of the Georgia Orthopaedic Society. It is your voice, your strength, your access to the State Capitol. All funds collected are used to support state candidates seeking state or administrative office.

Our Purpose

•   To financially support state candidates for public office who understand medical issues and are aligned with the legislative positions of the Georgia Orthopaedic Society

•   To educate state candidates who are running for political office on issues affecting physicians in Georgia

•   Assist and encourage orthopaedic surgeons to individually participate in campaign efforts and establish a relationship with local elected officials

•   Assist and encourage orthopaedic surgeons to understand the nature of the legislative and political process

•   Encourage and support medical doctors to run for state office

One goal of the Georgia Ortho-PAC is to create opportunities for GOS members to interact with their legislators and elected officials. When contributions are presented, we work to arrange a direct presentation between our members and the candidate or elected official. This allows our members the opportunity to develop a personal relationship with them and to let them know that physicians remain dedicated to the preservation and advancement of quality patient care in Georgia.

The 2023 legislative session was a successful one for doctors. The following is an outline of the different bills that were passed supporting the medical community in 2023.

Scope of Practice

As always, there were many bills dropped that would infringe upon the scope of practice for various physician specialties. We remain vigilant in working against the expansion of scope of practice outside of the physician license. Here are a list of bills affecting scope of practice from the 2023 legislative session:

SB 197 - Prohibits deceptive or misleading terms or false representations by health care practitioners in advertisements. It also prohibits the misappropriation of medical specialty titles. GOS was in support of this bill along with the entire medical coalition. The bill passed.

Hb 150 - This bill would have allowed physical therapists to order diagnostic imaging and use ultrasound. This was considered an infringement on scope particularly for radiologists. The bill has come up many times before but this year it did not pick up much traction. The bill did not pass but remains viable for 2024.

HB 445 - This bill by Representative Karen Mathiak would have removed the requirement that a CRNA work directly under the direction and responsibility of a physician and allow for the CRNA independent practice. There was a lot of energy surrounding this bill from legislators in both chambers and in leadership positions.

We expect scope of practice to be a key issue in 2024 – we have heard from physicians assistants, CRNAs, chiropractors, optometrists and others that are planning to bring forward bills affecting their scope of practice. There are many legislators interested in expanding and preserving scope of practice. We will continue to work to maintain the best outcome for physicians in Georgia.

Tort Reform

Tort reform will continue to be a focus of the legislature in Georgia. Georgia is consistently rated as one of the worst states for tort environment for physicians. In 2023, there were small gains. We have heard from the Governor and members of the legislature that tort reform is on the agenda in 2024. Here are the bills from 2023.

SB 196 - This bill would have allowed the admissibility of the failure to wear a seatbelt as evidence in civil actions. The bill did not pass as it failed in the Senate Health Committee. The bill is still viable for 2024 and will will continue to use this as a bar to gage the temperature of the body on tort reform issues.

SB 530 - This bill would have allowed for protective orders for certain high ranking officials in companies during depositions and discovery in a civil suit. This was brought about by some of the boards of larger companies that have become overburdened with these lawsuits and having their board members travel to be present. The bill did not pass on it’s own but was added to SB 74 at the end of the session and the language did pass.

Health Insurance Reform

SB 20 - This bill by Senator Kay Kirkpatrick authorizes the Department of Insurance to set and enforce network adequacy standards. Senator Kirkpatrick had been working on this issue steadily for years and was very pleased to have the bill pass unanimously this year.

HB 295 - This bill makes some necessary edits and additions to the surprise billing act from 2020. The bill gives the DOI an expanded timeline to be sure they have the flexibility to administer the claims process. The bill passed.

The Georgia General Assembly operates on a biennial schedule. All bills that were introduced in 2023 remain viable in 2024. With a successful 2023 we have momentum entering the 2024 Legislative Session scheduled to begin on January 8th. We will continue to work towards favorable insurance reform and practices, protecting scope of practice for patient safety and we will be putting a big focus on tort reform. Georgia continues to be the best state to do business yet presents one of the most difficult legal environments to work within. Tort reform is critical to improving the physician practice environment in Georgia.

Why We Do It – Results Matter!!

Your contributions to the GOS PAC are leveraged to make sure that member physicians have a true voice in government. It allows GOS to provide non-partisan support to key policy makers that are vital to making decisions on how your practice is governed, funded and allowed to operate.

In the 2022 election cycle, 90% of the candidates that GOS – PAC supported won their elections.

This is a significant number in an election year where we saw a 23% turnover in the General Assembly. Additionally, a number of the candidates we chose to support have ended up in higher leadership roles. Examples of this include our new Speaker Jon Burns and our new Lt. Governor Burt Jones. We lost one doctor in Dean Burke being appointed to the position of CMO of the State of Georgia but we maintain four doctors in the General Assembly and we welcome back physician spouse and supporter Deb Silcox. Having medical experts in the assembly gives doctors an opportunity to directly communicate with their peers. 

As listed above, you can see that we have had a number of wins at the state capitol in the last couple years. Much of this success can be attributed to our GOS – PAC activity and the relationships generated.

The GOS PAC handles these donations with the highest moral and ethical standards. Policy makers are vetted by the Board of Directors and our members are directly involved in the distribution of the contributions to key elected officials. This ensures that your hard-earned dollars have the maximum impact. We hope you will consider making a contribution to the PAC today. It is vital to our cause and vital to the continued success the Society has experienced in the public policy arena.

If you have any questions, I encourage you to reach out to your board members and feel free to contact our lobbyist, Don Bolia at 404-314-4844.

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