Bill Text: IL HB5228 | 2019-2020 | 101st General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Amends the Health Care Worker Background Check Act. Provides that "health care employer" includes the Department of Corrections or a third-party vendor employing certified nursing assistants working with the Department of Corrections. Effective immediately.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2020-06-23 - Rule 19(b) / Re-referred to Rules Committee [HB5228 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2019-HB5228-Introduced.html

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101ST GENERAL ASSEMBLY State of Illinois 2019 and 2020 HB5228 Introduced , by Rep. John Connor SYNOPSIS AS INTRODUCED:
225 ILCS 46/15
Amends the Health Care Worker Background Check Act. Provides that "health care employer" includes the Department of Corrections or a third-party vendor employing certified nursing assistants working with the Department of Corrections. Effective immediately.
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A BILL FOR
HB5228 LRB101 19289 SPS 68755 b
AN ACT concerning regulation.
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
represented in the General Assembly:
Section 5. The Health Care Worker Background Check Act is
amended by changing Section 15 as follows:
(225 ILCS 46/15)
Sec. 15. Definitions. In this Act:
"Applicant" means an individual enrolling in a training
program, seeking employment, whether paid or on a volunteer
basis, with a health care employer who has received a bona fide
conditional offer of employment.
"Conditional offer of employment" means a bona fide offer
of employment by a health care employer to an applicant, which
is contingent upon the receipt of a report from the Department
of Public Health indicating that the applicant does not have a
record of conviction of any of the criminal offenses enumerated
in Section 25.
"Department" means the Department of Public Health.
"Direct care" means the provision of nursing care or
assistance with feeding, dressing, movement, bathing,
toileting, or other personal needs, including home services as
defined in the Home Health, Home Services, and Home Nursing
Agency Licensing Act. The entity responsible for inspecting and

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licensing, certifying, or registering the health care employer
may, by administrative rule, prescribe guidelines for
interpreting this definition with regard to the health care
employers that it licenses.
"Director" means the Director of Public Health.
"Disqualifying offenses" means those offenses set forth in
Section 25 of this Act.
"Employee" means any individual hired, employed, or
retained, whether paid or on a volunteer basis, to which this
Act applies.
"Finding" means the Department's determination of whether
an allegation is verified and substantiated.
"Fingerprint-based criminal history records check" means a
livescan fingerprint-based criminal history records check
submitted as a fee applicant inquiry in the form and manner
prescribed by the Department of State Police.
"Health care employer" means:
(1) the owner or licensee of any of the following:
(i) a community living facility, as defined in the
Community Living Facilities Act;
(ii) a life care facility, as defined in the Life
Care Facilities Act;
(iii) a long-term care facility;
(iv) a home health agency, home services agency, or
home nursing agency as defined in the Home Health, Home
Services, and Home Nursing Agency Licensing Act;

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(v) a hospice care program or volunteer hospice
program, as defined in the Hospice Program Licensing
Act;
(vi) a hospital, as defined in the Hospital
Licensing Act;
(vii) (blank);
(viii) a nurse agency, as defined in the Nurse
Agency Licensing Act;
(ix) a respite care provider, as defined in the
Respite Program Act;
(ix-a) an establishment licensed under the
Assisted Living and Shared Housing Act;
(x) a supportive living program, as defined in the
Illinois Public Aid Code;
(xi) early childhood intervention programs as
described in 59 Ill. Adm. Code 121;
(xii) the University of Illinois Hospital,
Chicago;
(xiii) programs funded by the Department on Aging
through the Community Care Program;
(xiv) programs certified to participate in the
Supportive Living Program authorized pursuant to
Section 5-5.01a of the Illinois Public Aid Code;
(xv) programs listed by the Emergency Medical
Services (EMS) Systems Act as Freestanding Emergency
Centers;

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(xvi) locations licensed under the Alternative
Health Care Delivery Act;
(2) a day training program certified by the Department
of Human Services;
(3) a community integrated living arrangement operated
by a community mental health and developmental service
agency, as defined in the Community-Integrated Living
Arrangements Licensing and Certification Act; or
(4) the State Long Term Care Ombudsman Program,
including any regional long term care ombudsman programs
under Section 4.04 of the Illinois Act on the Aging, only
for the purpose of securing background checks; or .
(5) the Department of Corrections or a third-party
vendor employing certified nursing assistants working with
the Department of Corrections.
"Initiate" means obtaining from a student, applicant, or
employee his or her social security number, demographics, a
disclosure statement, and an authorization for the Department
of Public Health or its designee to request a fingerprint-based
criminal history records check; transmitting this information
electronically to the Department of Public Health; conducting
Internet searches on certain web sites, including without
limitation the Illinois Sex Offender Registry, the Department
of Corrections' Sex Offender Search Engine, the Department of
Corrections' Inmate Search Engine, the Department of
Corrections Wanted Fugitives Search Engine, the National Sex

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Offender Public Registry, and the List of Excluded Individuals
and Entities database on the website of the Health and Human
Services Office of Inspector General to determine if the
applicant has been adjudicated a sex offender, has been a
prison inmate, or has committed Medicare or Medicaid fraud, or
conducting similar searches as defined by rule; and having the
student, applicant, or employee's fingerprints collected and
transmitted electronically to the Department of State Police.
"Livescan vendor" means an entity whose equipment has been
certified by the Department of State Police to collect an
individual's demographics and inkless fingerprints and, in a
manner prescribed by the Department of State Police and the
Department of Public Health, electronically transmit the
fingerprints and required data to the Department of State
Police and a daily file of required data to the Department of
Public Health. The Department of Public Health shall negotiate
a contract with one or more vendors that effectively
demonstrate that the vendor has 2 or more years of experience
transmitting fingerprints electronically to the Department of
State Police and that the vendor can successfully transmit the
required data in a manner prescribed by the Department of
Public Health. Vendor authorization may be further defined by
administrative rule.
"Long-term care facility" means a facility licensed by the
State or certified under federal law as a long-term care
facility, including without limitation facilities licensed

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under the Nursing Home Care Act, the Specialized Mental Health
Rehabilitation Act of 2013, the ID/DD Community Care Act, or
the MC/DD Act, a supportive living facility, an assisted living
establishment, or a shared housing establishment or registered
as a board and care home.
"Resident" means a person, individual, or patient under the
direct care of a health care employer or who has been provided
goods or services by a health care employer.
(Source: P.A. 100-432, eff. 8-25-17; 101-176, eff. 7-31-19.)
Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon
becoming law.