ATLANTA – A proposal to expand a program seen as a lifeline for rural hospitals is one of the many bills awaiting legislators on the final day of the session.

A bill that was voted out of the House of Representatives this week would sweeten a tax credit for donors and raise the population requirement, which could open the program up to six or more hospitals.

It now moves to the Senate. Thursday is the last day of the legislative session.

“Hopefully, we will see something come of this and help our hospital,” said Rep. Rick Williams, R-Milledgeville.

Williams said his hometown hospital, Oconee Regional Medical Center in Milledgeville, is among those that would become eligible for the program if the population threshold is raised to 50,000 people, up from 35,000.

So would Colquitt Regional Medical Center in Moultrie.

“We have a growing need for healthcare services in our area and this could be helpful as we continue our efforts to meet this demand,” Jim Matney, hospital’s president and CEO, said in a statement.

Lawmakers passed a measure last year that offers a tax break to those who give to rural hospitals, costing the state as much as $180 million over three years. Donors can now get back 70 percent of their contributions.

But the program hasn’t taken off as quickly as lawmakers and local hospital administrators had hoped. About $1.2 million in tax credits had been claimed in the first two months – well below the $50 million limit for the first year.

Irwin County Hospital, for one, has received two donations so far, amounting to a couple thousand dollars.

“It’s just been very slow,” said Paige Wynn, Irwin County Hospital’s chief operating officer and chief financial officer. “I don’t think we’re going to go anywhere if doesn’t go to 90 (percent).”

An earlier proposal to increase the tax credit to 90 percent stalled in the House earlier in the session but was later attached to a Senate bill sponsored by Sen. Dean Burke, R-Bainbridge.

As it is now, the bill would also raise the limit for how much donors can give. Individuals would have the credit applied to $5,000. A couple would get back most of $10,000 donated.

Rep. Geoff Duncan, R-Cumming, who has led the initiative, said he believes the changes will quickly trigger more donations.

“We think that those dollars are sitting on the edge of the counter ready to flow into these 49 rural hospitals,” Duncan said from the House floor Tuesday.

The bill also tries to address a sore subject with several lawmakers, who have objected to the hospitals paying an outside consultant to handle the donations.

A third party could charge no more than a 3 percent fee for its services under the new plan.

Atlanta-based Portage Charity Advisors, which has started Georgia HEART, for Helping Ensure Access to Rural Treatment, originally planned to keep 6 percent of the donations processed.

A separate House measure that also tacked onto the bill would extend tax credits to doctors and nurses who agree to mentor medical students. It’s a plan that aims to keep Georgia students in the state once they finish school.

Jill Nolin covers the Georgia Statehouse for CNHI’s newspapers and websites. Reach her at jnolin@cnhi.com.