The ISMS Legislative Action Hub tracks issues, ISMS actions, and recent votes in the Illinois General Assembly of importance to Illinois physicians. If you require additional information on an issue below or on one of the numerous bills in Illinois that impact medicine, please contact State Legislative Affairs Staff at 800-782-4767.
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From the ISMS House of Delegates 
ISMS Initiative
Medical Practice Act Extension
Update: The Medical Practice Act was signed into law by Governor Quinn on 11/23/11. This law contains language to extend the Medical Practice Act for one year.
Safety Net Hospitals
Illinois' potential budget cuts are threatening the continuance of safety net hospital funding. A safety net hospital or health system provides a significant level of care to low-income, uninsured and vulnerable populations. ISMS has sent a letter to Governor Quinn and the Illinois House and Senate leadership urging reconsideration of possible cuts. Please click the link below to also contact Governor Quinn and your legislators.
License of Direct Entry Midwives
House Bill 2940 (Rep. Robyn Gabel (D-Evanston)) would license midwives and allow them to provide unsupervised home birthing services. HB 2940 would allow the least trained individual to independently provide one of the most critical services to women in Illinois. These midwives are significantly different from certified nurse midwives. Certified midwives do not consider obstetrical care medical; nor do they consider themselves medical providers. HB 2940 would allow these midwives to perform histories and physicials, provide prenatal care, dispense drugs, treat hemorrhages and other emergencies, and treat the infant and woman postpartum. All of these responsibilities are medical in nature and should only be performed by the professionals who are adequately trained to do so. Update: ISMS was successful in containing this scope of practice expansion. The bill did not advance beyond committee.
House Bill 1665 (Rep. Robyn Gabel (D-Evanston)) would create the Home Birth Integration Act and would require Illinois hospitals to implement emergency transfer protocols for home birth patients developed in collaboration with direct entry midwives. It would require the Department of Public Helath and the Illinois Council of Certified Professional Midwives to jointly develop guidelines for emergency transfer protocol and requires that those guidelines be communicated to the trauma center medical directors, committees and the medical directors of each EMS region. The bill prevents emergency health care professionals and facilities from reporting direct entry midwives to the Department of Professional Regulation. Update: ISMS was successful in containing this scope of practice expansion.
Health Professionals Sex Crime Allegation
House Bill 1271 (Rep. William Burns (D-Chicago)), Senate Bill 1762 (Sen. Kirk Dillard (R-Westmont)) and Amendment 1 to House Bill 220 (Rep. Jack Franks (D-Marengo)) automatically and permanently revokes the license of any health care professional who has been convicted of a sex offense or criminal battery. The language intends to protect patient safety while ensuring that proper due process is given to those health care workers that have had charges filed against them. Update: HB 1271 passed both Houses on May 18, 2011.
Scope of Practice - APNs
Senate Bill 1616 (Sen. Heather Steans (D-Chicago)) and House Bill 1682 (Robyn Gabel (D-Evanston)) would allow advanced practice nurses (APNs) to provide the same care as family physicians, obstetricians and anesthesiologists without requiring them to meet the education and training standards that physicians are required by law to complete.
Under House Bill 3133 (Rep. Sara Feigenholtz (D-Chicago)), APNs who meet certain conditions, would be able to submit a request to the Department of Professional Regulation to eliminate his or her requirement to work under a collaborative agreement and grant the APN autonomous practice with full prescribing authority. Update: ISMS was successful in containing this scope of practice expansion. The bill did not advance beyond committee.
Full Prescriptive Authority for Nurses
Senate Bill 2255 (Sen. William Haine (D-Alton)) and House Bill 2978 (Rep. John Bradley (D-Marion)) would grant APNs prescriptve authority. Update: SB 2255 passed both houses granting APNs limited prescription authority expansion in the presence of a collaborative agreement. ISMS-amendments were included in the bill to ensure APNs aren't granted authority beyond their training.
Licensure of Naturopaths
House Bill 3350 (Rep. Dan Reitz (D-Sparta)) would license naturopaths and allow them to practice medicine without receiving appropriate medical training. HB 3350 would define naturopaths as primary care physicians and would grant them limited prescriptive authority, allow them to provide obstetrical care and perform "minor office procedures." Naturopaths are currently not licensed in Illinois but wish to present themselves to the public as medical doctors. Update: ISMS was successful in containing this scope of practice expansion. The bill did not advance beyond committee.
Prescriptive Authority for Pharmacists
House Bill 2028 (Rep. Dan Reitz (D-Sparta)) would define a "pharmacist clinician" and grant pharmacists prescriptive authority. Update: ISMS was successful in containing this scope of practice expansion. The bill did not advance beyond committee.
Advance Directives
House Bill 3134 (Rep. Sara Feigenholtz (D-Chicago)) concerns advance directive information. It provides that the Department of Public Health (DPH) shall publish the DPH Uniform DNR Advance Directive form in Spanish and that the form shall meet the minimum requirements to be considered federally.This legislation creates a means of allowing physicians and healthcare workers to honor patient's wishes for how much care and the types of care they wish to receive in different situations including end-of-life. Update: House Bill 3134 passed both Houses on 5/18/11.
Medical Liability Reform Measures
Senate Bills 1887, 1888 and House Bill 2887 (Rep. Jil Tracy (R-Quincy)) reenact many provisions of Public Act 94-677 with the exceptions of caps on non-economic damages and the Sorry Works Program. This language does include a decrease in the rate of interest payable on judgments. Update: Although these bills did not advance beyond their assigned committees, it continues to be ISMS' top legislative priority.
Health Courts
Senate Bill 1893 (Sen. David Leuchtefeld (R-Okawville)) is a vehicle bill for language creating health courts in Illinois. Update: This bill did not advance out of committee.
Pre-Existing Conditions
House Bill 1238 (Rep. Karen May (D-Highwood)) provides that beginning January 1, 2012, no group or individual accident and health insurance policy shall exclude coverage for any condition defined under the Department of Insurance rules as a pre-existing condition. Update: This measure did not advance beyond committee, similar legislation has been passed at the federal level.
Workers' Compensation
The Illinois General Assembly is again considering significant changes to the Workers' Compensation Act. Efforts are underway to severely reduce the medical fee schedule, collapse the geographic fee schedules, remove the patient's ability to choose their own physician and adopt medical guidelines that are not in the injured worker's best interest. The proposals being considered would create a new medical fee schedule that would base reimbursements on the Medicare payment system. They would also allow the employer to choose all medical, surgical and hospital services provided to the injured worker. These bills also provide for a waiver of employee privacy so the employer can obtain certain information. Update: This was signed into law on June 28, 2011.
Out-of-Network Payment
Senate Bill 72 (Sen. William Haine (D-Alton)) addresses the adjudication of insurance claims submitted by non-contracted hospital-based physicians. This bill responds to HB 5085, which was passed by the 96th General Assembly. Though this bill was recently signed into law by Gov. Quinn, it does not go into effect until June 1, giving the General Assembly time to address physicians' concerns. ISMS and the medical specialty groups affected by this legislation remain committed to addressing this issue in an equitable manner. Update: Although legislation was introduced (A1 to SB 72 and A1 to HB 1577) to delay the start date from 6/1/11 to 1/1/12 and further study the issue, these bills did not move from their assigned committees. ISMS continues to advocate for a remedy to this unfair law.
"Bath Salts"
House Bill 2089 would add methylenedioxypyrovalerone (MDPV) to the list of Schedule I Controlled Substances, and effectively ban its use in Illinois. Update: HB 2089 passed both Houses and has been signed into law by Governor Quinn.
Health Savings Accounts
ISMS has sent a letter to Governor Quinn urging him to sign into law SB 1555, an Act creating the Illinois Health Benefits Exchange Law and the State Employees Health Savings Account Law. Patients should have a choice of health plans and properly structured HSAs would be a very beneficial new option for State of Illinois employees and will prove to save the state a significant amount of funding for state employees' health care. Update: SB 1555 was signed into law and is now Public Act 97-0142.
Recoupment Time Limits
House Bill 1193 would prevent insurers from requesting or withholding recoupments or offsets in future payments to physicians 18 months or more after the initial payment was made. ISMS has been active in establishing reasonable time limits for insurer recoupments, and this bill passed both houses of the General Assembly with ISMS support. It is now on the governor's desk.