---
type: "Bill"
title: "Insurance; Georgia Telemedicine Act; modernize; Telemedicine Act the Telehealth Act; rename"
description: "A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Article 1 of Chapter 24 of Title 33 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to insurance generally, so as to modernize the Georgia Telemedicine Act; to rename the Telemedicine Act the Telehealth Act; to revise the definition of telemedicine; to provide a definition of telehealth; to prohibit insurers from requiring insureds to use telemedicine; to provide for pay equity for health care providers using telemedicine; to provide for related matters; to provide an effective date; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ga"
legislature: "Georgia General Assembly"
session: "2019_20"
identifier: "SB 118"
citation: "Georgia SB 118 (2019_20)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Brandon Beach", "Chuck Hufstetler", "Dean Burke", "Freddie Sims", "Gloria Butler", "Greg Kirk", "Jeff Mullis", "Larry Walker, III", "Renee Unterman", "Steve Gooch", "Steve Henson", "Valencia Seay"]
version_count: 4
action_count: 16
vote_count: 1
first_action: "2019-02-15"
last_action: "2020-01-01"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/796ecd6e-54a7-45d3-b837-ac6e898b1ef1"
source_url: "http://webservices.legis.ga.gov/GGAServices/Legislation/Service.svc?wsdl"
source_hash: "2654db755803715fd2ba2a1b51e9dd6839b78c598c19019bd9e529c8bf507e2f"
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 118 (2019_20) — Insurance; Georgia Telemedicine Act; modernize; Telemedicine Act the Telehealth Act; rename

A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Article 1 of Chapter 24 of Title 33 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to insurance generally, so as to modernize the Georgia Telemedicine Act; to rename the Telemedicine Act the Telehealth Act; to revise the definition of telemedicine; to provide a definition of telehealth; to prohibit insurers from requiring insureds to use telemedicine; to provide for pay equity for health care providers using telemedicine; to provide for related matters; to provide an effective date; 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 46 0064** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20192020/181694.pdf)
2. **As passed Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20192020/182903.pdf)
3. **LC 46 0151S/hss** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20192020/184406.pdf)
4. **SB118/AP*** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20192020/186762.pdf)

## Votes

- PASSAGE — **50–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Brandon Beach — primary (person)
- Chuck Hufstetler — primary (person)
- Dean Burke — primary (person)
- Freddie Sims — primary (person)
- Gloria Butler — primary (person)
- Greg Kirk — primary (person)
- Jeff Mullis — primary (person)
- Larry Walker, III — primary (person)
- Renee Unterman — primary (person)
- Steve Gooch — primary (person)
- Steve Henson — primary (person)
- Valencia Seay — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2019-02-15** Senate Hopper
- **2019-02-19** Senate Read and Referred `referral-committee`
- **2019-02-22** Senate Committee Favorably Reported `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2019-02-25** Senate Read Second Time `reading-2`
- **2019-02-26** Senate Third Read `reading-3`
- **2019-02-26** Senate Passed/Adopted `passage`
- **2019-02-27** House First Readers `reading-1`
- **2019-02-28** House Second Readers `reading-2`
- **2019-03-13** House Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2019-03-26** House Third Readers `reading-3`
- **2019-03-26** House Passed/Adopted By Substitute `passage`
- **2019-03-28** Senate Agreed House Amend or Sub
- **2019-04-05** Senate Sent to Governor `executive-receipt`
- **2019-05-06** Senate Date Signed by Governor `executive-signature`
- **2019-05-06** Act 155 `executive-signature`
- **2020-01-01** Effective Date

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/796ecd6e-54a7-45d3-b837-ac6e898b1ef1`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Georgia legislature records).