Christmas is rapidly approaching and like many families, my wife handles 90%+ the present shopping duties. This year, though, she took it a step further and sent me a direct link to what she’d like me to purchase for her. Now I’m confused. Is this a) the easiest Christmas ever. Buy the suggested gift and don’t over think it? Or is it option b) “it’s a trap”?
New Bills of Interest
HB 4243 (Davis) - Amends the Illinois Clinical Laboratory and Blood Bank Act. Requires a blood bank to test or have tested donated blood for evidence of any COVID-19 vaccine and any other messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) vaccine components, and requires a blood donor to disclose during each blood donor screening process whether the blood donor has received a COVID-19 vaccine or any other mRNA vaccine during the donor's lifetime. Requires blood or blood components to include on their labels a designation that the blood or blood components tested positive for evidence of a COVID-19 vaccine or any other mRNA vaccine component or was drawn from a blood donor who disclosed the donor have received a COVID-19 vaccine or any other mRNA vaccine during the donor's lifetime.
HB 4256 (Kelly) - Creates the Health Care Funding Act. Establishes the Health Care Funding Association for the primary purpose of equitably determining and collecting assessments for the cost of immunizations and health care information lines in the State that are not covered by other federal or State funding. Requires assessed entities, which include, but are not limited to, writers of individual, group, or stop-loss insurance, health maintenance organizations, third-party administrators, fraternal benefit societies, and certain other entities, to pay a specified quarterly assessment to the Association. Sets forth provisions concerning membership of the Association; powers and duties of the Association; methodology for calculating the assessment amount; reports and audits; immunities; tax-exempt status of the Association; an administrative allowance to the Department of Public Health; and other matters.
2024 Healthcare Council Initiatives
I’m working on finalizing council initiatives for the 2024 session. If you have any legislative ideas, both in support or opposition, that you’d like to discuss or for us to discuss council wide, please shoot me an email or give me a call.
ICYMI- BIPA Win Relating to Healthcare Workers in Illinois Supreme Court
It’s really nice to be able to report on good BIPA related news for once. Special thank you is due to John Adams at EimerStahl for drafting the Chamber’s amicus brief for this case.
The Illinois Supreme Court held that the Biometric Information Privacy Act “excludes from its protections the biometric information of health care workers where that information is collected, used, or stored for health care treatment, payment, or operations, as those functions are defined by HIPPA. A health care worker’s biometric information, used to permit access to medication dispending stations for patient care . . . is exempt from [BIPA’s] protections.” Mosby, 2013 IL 129081, ¶ 54 (citing 740 ILCS 14/10). Accordingly, the Court reversed the judgement of the appellate court and remanded the case to the circuit court for further proceedings.
As you’ll recall, the certified question in this case asked whether the language following “or” in Section 10 of BIPA—which excludes as “biometric identifiers” “information collected, used, or stored for health care treatment, payment, or operations under HIPPA”—refers exclusively to a patient’s biometric information (as the plaintiffs argued) or includes a health care worker’s biometric information used to access patient medications and provide patient care (as the defendants argued). Agreeing with the defendants, the Court adopted the reasoning from our brief.
Rulemaking
Health Care Workers: The DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH proposed amendments to Health Care Worker Background Check Code (77 IAC 955; 47 Ill Reg 17803) implementing PA 103-303. The rulemaking adds financial management services entities that assist individuals with disabilities in hiring and keeping records for their personal support workers to the list of health care employers who must conduct background checks for prospective or current employees. It also clarifies that disqualifying offenses include federal or other state offenses equivalent to those listed in the Illinois Criminal Code and that these offenses must be verified by court records, records of a state agency, or an FBI criminal history records check. Questions/requests for copies/comments through 1/16/24: Tracey Trigillo, DPH, 524 S. Second St., 6th Floor, Springfield IL 62701, 217782-1159, dph.rules@illinois.gov
Spring Session Schedule
Both chambers will return to Springfield on January 16th at the call of the Speaker and Senate President. The 2024 Spring session calendar is now available. Click to view the House and Senate calendars.
