---
type: "Bill"
title: "Medical Assistance; Department of Community Health to submit a waiver request to the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services; direct"
description: "A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Article 7 of Chapter 4 of Title 49 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to medical assistance generally, so as to direct the Department of Community Health to submit a waiver request to the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to authorize the qualification for Medicaid reimbursement of certain home and community based services; to provide for implementation upon approval; to provide for related matters; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ga"
legislature: "Georgia General Assembly"
session: "2025_26"
identifier: "SB 428"
citation: "Georgia SB 428 (2025_26)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["SOCIAL SERVICES"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Ben Watson", "Bo Hatchett", "Drew Echols", "Kay Kirkpatrick", "Kim Jackson"]
version_count: 4
action_count: 15
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2026-01-27"
last_action: "2026-07-01"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/9a6c9490-e877-46db-ae85-0056cdbe94e7"
source_url: "http://webservices.legis.ga.gov/GGAServices/Legislation/Service.svc?wsdl"
source_hash: "b48226f8008641e6d76f318e64b8b4b69638af571587cd21ae1f24b49583b5b9"
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 428 (2025_26) — Medical Assistance; Department of Community Health to submit a waiver request to the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services; direct

A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Article 7 of Chapter 4 of Title 49 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to medical assistance generally, so as to direct the Department of Community Health to submit a waiver request to the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to authorize the qualification for Medicaid reimbursement of certain home and community based services; to provide for implementation upon approval; 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 Passed Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20252026/243764.pdf)
2. **As introduced LC 60 0239** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20252026/240433.pdf)
3. **Committee Sub LC 60 0311S** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20252026/243232.pdf)
4. **SB 428/AP*** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20252026/247225.pdf)

## Votes

- Senate Vote #577 - 2025-2026 Regular Session — **46–0** (pass) · upper
- House Vote #745 - 2025-2026 Regular Session — **166–2** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Ben Watson — primary (person)
- Bo Hatchett — primary (person)
- Drew Echols — primary (person)
- Kay Kirkpatrick — primary (person)
- Kim Jackson — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2026-01-27** Senate Hopper `introduction`
- **2026-01-28** Senate Read and Referred `referral-committee`
- **2026-02-19** Senate Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2026-02-20** Senate Read Second Time `reading-2`
- **2026-02-24** Senate Third Read `reading-3`
- **2026-02-24** Senate Passed/Adopted By Substitute `passage`
- **2026-02-25** House First Readers `reading-1`
- **2026-02-26** House Second Readers `reading-2`
- **2026-03-10** House Committee Favorably Reported `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2026-03-23** House Third Readers `reading-3`
- **2026-03-23** House Passed/Adopted `passage`
- **2026-04-10** Senate Sent to Governor `executive-receipt`
- **2026-05-11** Senate Date Signed by Governor `executive-signature`
- **2026-05-11** Act 492 `executive-signature`
- **2026-07-01** Effective Date

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/9a6c9490-e877-46db-ae85-0056cdbe94e7`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Georgia legislature records).