---
type: "Bill"
title: "Health; care and protection of indigent and elderly patients; provide for the establishment and operation of a drug repository program to accept and dispense unused prescription drugs"
description: "A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Chapter 8 of Title 31 of the O.C.G.A., relating to the care and protection of indigent and elderly patients, so as to provide for the establishment and operation of a drug repository program to accept and dispense unused prescription drugs; to amend Chapter 4 of Title 26 of the O.C.G.A., relating to pharmacists and pharmacies, so as to repeal the \"Utilization of Unused Prescription Drugs Act\"; to amend Article 7 of Chapter 4 of Title 49 of the O.C.G.A., relating to medical assistance generally, so as to revise a provision for purposes of conformity; 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: "HB 897"
citation: "Georgia HB 897 (2015_16)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Betty Price", "Bruce Broadrick", "Jodi Lott", "Margaret Kaiser", "Matt Hatchett", "Sharon Cooper"]
version_count: 4
action_count: 17
vote_count: 1
first_action: "2016-02-03"
last_action: "2016-07-01"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/917d095f-1f5e-47bf-ad99-d63a8e523ad9"
source_url: "http://webservices.legis.ga.gov/GGAServices/Legislation/Service.svc?wsdl"
source_hash: "d192276bd8164be40ec02cee73bc1b4ab409436c3028d346b4b057647feb6ce5"
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 HB 897 (2015_16) — Health; care and protection of indigent and elderly patients; provide for the establishment and operation of a drug repository program to accept and dispense unused prescription drugs

A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Chapter 8 of Title 31 of the O.C.G.A., relating to the care and protection of indigent and elderly patients, so as to provide for the establishment and operation of a drug repository program to accept and dispense unused prescription drugs; to amend Chapter 4 of Title 26 of the O.C.G.A., relating to pharmacists and pharmacies, so as to repeal the "Utilization of Unused Prescription Drugs Act"; to amend Article 7 of Chapter 4 of Title 49 of the O.C.G.A., relating to medical assistance generally, so as to revise a provision for purposes of conformity; 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. **HB 897/AP*** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20152016/162108.pdf)
2. **LC 33 6408/a** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20152016/156355.pdf)
3. **LC 33 6493S/hcs** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20152016/158836.pdf)
4. **LC 33 6493S/hs** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20152016/157656.pdf)

## Votes

- PASSAGE — **166–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Betty Price — primary (person)
- Bruce Broadrick — primary (person)
- Jodi Lott — primary (person)
- Margaret Kaiser — primary (person)
- Matt Hatchett — primary (person)
- Sharon Cooper — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2016-02-03** House Hopper
- **2016-02-04** House First Readers `reading-1`
- **2016-02-08** House Second Readers `reading-2`
- **2016-02-17** House Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2016-02-25** House Third Readers `reading-3`
- **2016-02-25** House Passed/Adopted By Substitute `passage`
- **2016-02-26** Senate Read and Referred `referral-committee`
- **2016-03-15** Senate Committee Favorably Reported `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2016-03-15** Senate Read Second Time `reading-2`
- **2016-03-22** Senate Tabled
- **2016-03-22** Senate Taken from Table
- **2016-03-22** Senate Third Read `reading-3`
- **2016-03-22** Senate Passed/Adopted `passage`
- **2016-03-29** House Sent to Governor `executive-receipt`
- **2016-04-27** House Date Signed by Governor `executive-signature`
- **2016-04-27** Act 471 `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/917d095f-1f5e-47bf-ad99-d63a8e523ad9`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Georgia legislature records).