State leaders want to ease restrictions on rural hospitals in the face of a growing healthcare crisis.
Georgia senators voted to allow new hospitals to be built in counties with fewer than 50,000 residents without state permission.
The measure is particularly aimed at allowing an undisclosed entity to build a new hospital in the home county of Lieutenant Governor Bert Jones.
Senators voted 4213 To pass Senate bill 99 on Monday, sending it to the House for more debate. The measure says governments or private nonprofit groups can build hospitals in less populated counties without getting a certificate of need from the State Department of Community Health.
