GA HB219

Authorizes the Georgia Composite Board of Professional Counselors, Social Workers, and Marriage and Family Therapists to establish professional health programs for monitoring and rehabilitating impaired healthcare professionals

Authorizes the Georgia Board of Nursing to establish similar professional health programs for impaired nurses and nursing professionals

Defines "impaired" as inability to practice with reasonable skill and safety due to illness, alcohol, drugs, narcotics, chemicals, or mental/physical conditions

All program records, reports, and documents are privileged and confidential, exempt from open records requests and court subpoenas or discovery proceedings

Impaired professionals must bear all costs of program participation; boards may accept private funding, public grants, and in-kind gifts; contracting entities receive civil and criminal immunity for program activities