FAIR Health Assists Georgia Crime Victims Compensation Program

August 18, 2022

FAIR Health has begun a new engagement in Georgia: helping the state with its Crime Victims Compensation Program. The new engagement builds on FAIR Health’s continuing work with Georgia’s workers’ compensation program.

The Georgia Crime Victims Compensation Program eases the financial burden faced by victims of violent crimes. One area of support the Compensation Program provides is to cover expenses related to medical bills and mental health counseling. A law that became effective July 1, 2022, requires Georgia to use the Georgia workers’ compensation rates to reimburse medical providers for services provided to crime victims who do not have insurance coverage. The Georgia Criminal Justice Coordinating Council (CJCC), which administers the state’s Crime Victims Compensation Program, turned to FAIR Health for help in understanding those rates. Each year since 2015, FAIR Health has provided development assistance and data consultation for the Georgia Workers’ Compensation Medical Fee Schedule, which is updated annually.

As CJCC programs its systems to use the medical fee schedule, FAIR Health is helping CJCC understand how the fee schedule works. FAIR Health will conduct training and fee schedule support as needed. The engagement runs through March 31, 2026.

As detailed in the article in this issue on government use of FAIR Health data, FAIR Health provides a broad range of assistance to states. In Georgia alone, FAIR Health not only supports the workers’ compensation program and the Crime Victims Compensation Program but serves as the official data source to support the state’s surprise billing law. New York State’s Office of Victim Services also licenses FAIR Health’s consumer website, fairhealthconsumer.org, to support its needs for paying providers who treat crime victims.

For more information about the services and data products FAIR Health offers to state agencies, including those administering crime victim funds, contact FAIR Health by email at info@fairhealth.org or call 855-301-3247, Monday through Friday, 9 am to 6 pm ET.