Georgia Department of Community Health
 | This article may incorporate text from a large language model, which is prohibited in Wikipedia articles. (June 2026) |
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| Department overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | 1999 |
| Jurisdiction | Georgia |
| Headquarters | 2 Peachtree Street NW Atlanta, Georgia 30303 |
Department executive |
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Parent department | Government of Georgia (U.S. state) |
| Website | dch |
The Georgia Department of Community Health (DCH) is an agency of the executive branch of the U.S. state of Georgia that serves as the state's lead agency for health care planning and purchasing.[1] DCH administers Medicaid and PeachCare for Kids, the state's children's health insurance program, manages the State Health Benefit Plan for state employees and teachers, regulates health care facilities through its Healthcare Facility Regulation Division, and oversees the State Office of Rural Health.[2] The department's programs affect roughly one in four Georgians.[2]
History
[edit]DCH was created in 1999 by Governor Roy Barnes and the General Assembly, which consolidated four existing state agencies involved in health care purchasing, planning, and regulation into a single department.[1] The Composite Medical Board describes DCH's founding purpose as maximizing the state's health care purchasing power and coordinating health care planning across state agencies.[3] The agency is governed by a nine-member Board of Community Health appointed by the governor.[4]
Organization
[edit]DCH is organized into three program divisions supported by enterprise offices: Medical Assistance Plans, which administers Medicaid and PeachCare for Kids; the State Health Benefit Plan, which provides health coverage to state employees, teachers, and retirees; and the Healthcare Facility Regulation Division, which licenses and inspects hospitals, nursing homes, and other health care facilities in the state.[2] The Composite Medical Board is administratively attached to DCH.[3]
Georgia Pathways to Coverage
[edit]Following the federal Affordable Care Act, Georgia did not adopt full Medicaid expansion. In 2019 the General Assembly passed the Patients First Act, and in 2023 DCH launched Georgia Pathways to Coverage, a Section 1115 Medicaid demonstration waiver that provides coverage to low-income adults who document at least 80 hours per month of work, education, or other approved activities; as of 2026, Georgia is the only state in the country actively enforcing a Medicaid work requirement.[5]
The program's enrollment has consistently fallen well short of state projections. The nonpartisan Georgia Budget and Policy Institute found that about 8,077 Georgians were actively enrolled by the end of Pathways' first two years, no more than 7 percent of eligible uninsured low-income adults in working households, and that more than half of interested applicants were unable to complete the application due to the activity-reporting requirement.[6] Reporting by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and other outlets found that the bulk of program spending in its early years went toward administrative costs, including contracts with the consulting firm Deloitte for the program's Gateway eligibility-and-enrollment system, rather than direct medical coverage.[5]
Governor Brian Kemp has pointed to combined enrollment across Pathways and Georgia Access, the state's separate program assisting residents with Affordable Care Act marketplace coverage, stating the two initiatives together have extended coverage to more than 700,000 Georgians.[7] Health policy researchers have noted that the large majority of that combined figure reflects private marketplace plans purchased using enhanced federal subsidies rather than enrollment in Pathways itself, and that Pathways alone covers only a small fraction of the Georgians who would be eligible under full Medicaid expansion.[7] The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services extended Georgia's Pathways waiver authority in September 2025 through December 2026, when new federal Medicaid work-requirement rules are set to take effect nationwide under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.[5]
DCH's Medicaid eligibility system, known as Gateway, has also experienced periodic technical failures; in early 2026, a system glitch briefly and erroneously disenrolled children covered under the state's Katie Beckett waiver for individuals with disabilities, before DCH said the issue was resolved.[8]
Leadership
[edit]DCH is headed by a commissioner appointed by the Governor of Georgia. Frank W. Berry, formerly commissioner of the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities, was appointed DCH commissioner by Governor Nathan Deal effective December 1, 2016.[9] Russel Carlson later served as commissioner and oversaw the launch of Georgia Pathways to Coverage before departing for the private sector in 2025.[10] Governor Brian Kemp named Dean Burke, a physician and former state senator who had been serving as DCH's chief medical officer, as commissioner effective August 1, 2025.[11] Burke represented Senate District 11 from 2013 to 2023 and authored legislation creating the state's Maternal Mortality Review Committee.[12]
Headquarters
[edit]DCH is headquartered at 2 Peachtree Street NW in Atlanta.[13]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- 1 2 "Georgia Department of Community Health". Emory University. Retrieved June 21, 2026.
- 1 2 3 "About Us". Georgia Department of Community Health. Retrieved June 21, 2026.
- 1 2 "Georgia Department of Community Health". Georgia Composite Medical Board. Retrieved June 21, 2026.
- ↑ "About Georgia Medicaid". Georgia Department of Community Health. Retrieved June 21, 2026.
- 1 2 3 "CMS's Georgia Waiver Extension Underscores the Failure of Medicaid Work Requirements". Georgetown University Center for Children and Families. October 30, 2025. Retrieved June 21, 2026.
- ↑ "Pathways to Coverage: Looking Back Two Years and Into the Future". Georgia Budget and Policy Institute. October 14, 2025. Retrieved June 21, 2026.
- 1 2 "Georgia's health care waivers: What each waiver does and their impact" (PDF). Georgians for a Healthy Future. February 2025. Retrieved June 21, 2026.
- ↑ "Georgia Medicaid glitch briefly disenrolls disabled children on waiver program". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. February 2026. Retrieved June 21, 2026.
- ↑ "Frank Berry to Head Georgia Department of Community Health". Metro Atlanta CEO. November 3, 2016. Retrieved June 21, 2026.
- ↑ "Dr. Dean Burke appointed as new commissioner of Georgia's Department of Community Health". FOX 5 Atlanta. July 2025. Retrieved June 21, 2026.
- ↑ "Gov. Kemp Names Dr. Dean Burke as Incoming DCH Commissioner". Office of the Governor of Georgia. July 7, 2025. Retrieved June 21, 2026.
- ↑ "Dean Burke appointed to lead Department of Community Health". Georgia Recorder. July 7, 2025. Retrieved June 21, 2026.
- ↑ "Directions". Georgia Department of Community Health. Retrieved June 21, 2026.