2022 Georgia Code
Title 44 - Property
Chapter 14 - Mortgages, Conveyances to Secure Debt, and Liens
Article 8 - Liens
Part 8 - Hospitals and Nursing Homes
§ 44-14-470. Lien on Causes of Action Accruing to Injured Person for Costs of Care and Treatment of Injuries Arising Out of Such Causes of Action

1. Except where the context otherwise requires in subsection (b) of this Code section, as used in this part, the term:
   1. “Hospital” means any hospital or nursing home subject to regulation and licensure by the Department of Community Health.
   2. “Hospital care, treatment, or services” means care, treatment, or services furnished by a hospital or nursing home.
   3. “Nursing home” means any intermediate care home, skilled nursing home, or intermingled home.
   4. “Physician practice” means any medical practice that includes one or more physicians licensed to practice medicine in this state.
   5. “Traumatic burn care medical practice” means care, treatment, or services rendered by a medical practice with respect to a patient whose burn care, treatment, or services resulted in charges in excess of $50,000.00, arising out of a single accident or occurrence.
2. Any person, firm, hospital authority, or corporation operating a hospital, nursing home, or physician practice or providing traumatic burn care medical practice in this state shall have a lien for the reasonable charges for hospital, nursing home, physician practice, or traumatic burn care medical practice care and treatment of an injured person, which lien shall be upon any and all causes of action accruing to the person to whom the care was furnished or to the legal representative of such person on account of injuries giving rise to the causes of action and which necessitated the hospital, nursing home, physician practice, or provider of traumatic burn care medical practice care, subject, however, to any attorney’s lien. The lien provided for in this subsection is only a lien against such causes of action and shall not be a lien against such injured person, such legal representative, or any other property or assets of such persons and shall not be evidence of such person’s failure to pay a debt. This subsection shall not be construed to interfere with the exemption from this part provided by Code Section 44-14-474.

History. Ga. L. 1953, Nov.-Dec. Sess., p. 105, § 1; Ga. L. 1983, p. 548, § 1; Ga. L. 1986, p. 222, § 1; Ga. L. 2002, p. 1141, § 1; Ga. L. 2002, p. 1429, § 1; Ga. L. 2004, p. 394, § 1; Ga. L. 2008, p. 12, § 2-36/SB 433.

The 2002 amendments.

The first 2002 amendment, effective July 1, 2002, added paragraph (a)(4); and, in the first sentence of subsection (b), inserted “or providing traumatic burn care medical practice”, substituted “hospital, nursing home, or traumatic burn care medical practice” for “hospital or nursing home” and substituted “hospital, nursing home, or provider of traumatic burn care medical practice” for “hospital or nursing home” near the end. The second 2002 amendment, effective July 1, 2002, added the second sentence in subsection (b).

The 2004 amendment, effective July 1, 2004, added present paragraph (a)(4); redesignated former paragraph (a)(4) as present paragraph (a)(5); and, in subsection (b), substituted “hospital, nursing home, or physician practice” for “hospital or nursing home” and inserted “physician practice,” twice.

The 2008 amendment, effective July 1, 2009, substituted “Department of Community Health” for “Department of Human Resources” in paragraph (a)(1).

Cross references.

Lien of Department of Community Health for payment of charges for medical assistance, § 49-4-149 .

Editor’s notes.

Ga. L. 1986, p. 222, § 2, not codified by the General Assembly, provided that that Act would apply to charges for care and treatment rendered on or after the effective date of the Act (March 20, 1986).

Law reviews.

For article, “An Insurer’s Duty to Settle: The Law in Georgia,” see 22 Ga. St. Bar J. 19 (Aug. 2016).

For article with annual survey on torts, see 73 Mercer L. Rev. 243 (2021).