---
type: "Bill"
title: "Clinical Laboratories; provide certain nondiagnostic laboratories not subject to state licensure as clinical laboratory"
description: "A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Code Section 31-22-1 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to definitions relative to clinical laboratories, so as to provide that certain nondiagnostic laboratories are not subject to state licensure as a clinical laboratory; to provide for related matters; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ga"
legislature: "Georgia General Assembly"
session: "2015_16"
identifier: "SB 273"
citation: "Georgia SB 273 (2015_16)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Burt Jones", "Dean Burke", "JaNice VanNess", "Rick Jeffares"]
version_count: 3
action_count: 15
vote_count: 1
first_action: "2016-01-20"
last_action: "2016-07-01"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/fb1be8e4-aef7-43da-b2b7-a86fb52cfb7f"
source_url: "http://webservices.legis.ga.gov/GGAServices/Legislation/Service.svc?wsdl"
source_hash: "72c5d29d4b50c1df6bebf15c0b33094a0f185ef7e4bce63064c0466600632b72"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ga"]
---

# Georgia SB 273 (2015_16) — Clinical Laboratories; provide certain nondiagnostic laboratories not subject to state licensure as clinical laboratory

A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Code Section 31-22-1 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to definitions relative to clinical laboratories, so as to provide that certain nondiagnostic laboratories are not subject to state licensure as a clinical laboratory; to provide for related matters; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **As introduced LC 33 6300** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20152016/154830.pdf)
2. **As passed Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20152016/156378.pdf)
3. **SB 273/AP*** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20152016/160397.pdf)

## Votes

- PASSAGE — **56–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Burt Jones — primary (person)
- Dean Burke — primary (person)
- JaNice VanNess — primary (person)
- Rick Jeffares — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2016-01-20** Senate Hopper
- **2016-01-21** Senate Read and Referred `referral-committee`
- **2016-01-28** Senate Committee Favorably Reported `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2016-02-01** Senate Read Second Time `reading-2`
- **2016-02-03** Senate Third Read `reading-3`
- **2016-02-03** Senate Passed/Adopted `passage`
- **2016-02-04** House First Readers `reading-1`
- **2016-02-08** House Second Readers `reading-2`
- **2016-03-10** House Committee Favorably Reported `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2016-03-11** House Third Readers `reading-3`
- **2016-03-11** House Passed/Adopted `passage`
- **2016-03-30** Senate Sent to Governor `executive-receipt`
- **2016-04-26** Senate Date Signed by Governor `executive-signature`
- **2016-04-26** Act 406 `executive-signature`
- **2016-07-01** Effective Date

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/fb1be8e4-aef7-43da-b2b7-a86fb52cfb7f`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Georgia legislature records).