This article was originally published by Healthbeat, a nonprofit newsroom covering public health published by Civic News Company and KFF Health News.
A bill to make it easier for foreign-trained doctors to practice in Georgia passed a Senate committee with a unanimous vote, opening the way for the measure to pass two years after it was first proposed.
A similar bill last year failed to gain approval before the end of the session. This year, the bill gained the sponsorship of a powerful Republican backer, Dr. Ben Watson, a Savannah doctor who chairs the Senate Health and Human Services committee.
The measure would create a pathway for lawfully present doctors who trained in other countries to practice in Georgia if a long list of conditions is met. The idea is to match foreign-trained doctors to medically underserved areas.
If Georgia adopts the measure, it would join a growing list of states — at least 17, according to the American Medical Association — that have done so, including neighboring Tennessee, Florida and, most recently, North Carolina, whose law took effect in January.