Public Act 099-0530
 
HB4826 EnrolledLRB099 18032 KTG 42395 b

    AN ACT concerning aging.
 
    Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
represented in the General Assembly:
 
    Section 5. The Adult Protective Services Act is amended by
changing Section 15 as follows:
 
    (320 ILCS 20/15)
    Sec. 15. Fatality Review Teams.
    (a) State policy.
        (1) Both the State and the community maintain a
    commitment to preventing the abuse, neglect, and financial
    exploitation of at-risk adults. This includes a charge to
    bring perpetrators of crimes against at-risk adults to
    justice and prevent untimely deaths in the community.
        (2) When an at-risk adult dies, the response to the
    death by the community, law enforcement, and the State must
    include an accurate and complete determination of the cause
    of death, and the development and implementation of
    measures to prevent future deaths from similar causes.
        (3) Multidisciplinary and multi-agency reviews of
    deaths can assist the State and counties in developing a
    greater understanding of the incidence and causes of
    premature deaths and the methods for preventing those
    deaths, improving methods for investigating deaths, and
    identifying gaps in services to at-risk adults.
        (4) Access to information regarding the deceased
    person and his or her family by multidisciplinary and
    multi-agency fatality review teams is necessary in order to
    fulfill their purposes and duties.
    (a-5) Definitions. As used in this Section:
        "Advisory Council" means the Illinois Fatality Review
    Team Advisory Council.
        "Review Team" means a regional interagency fatality
    review team.
    (b) The Director, in consultation with the Advisory
Council, law enforcement, and other professionals who work in
the fields of investigating, treating, or preventing abuse or
neglect of at-risk adults, shall appoint members to a minimum
of one review team in each of the Department's planning and
service areas. Each member of a review team shall be appointed
for a 2-year term and shall be eligible for reappointment upon
the expiration of the term. A review team's purpose in
conducting review of at-risk adult deaths is: (i) to assist
local agencies in identifying and reviewing suspicious deaths
of adult victims of alleged, suspected, or substantiated abuse
or neglect in domestic living situations; (ii) to facilitate
communications between officials responsible for autopsies and
inquests and persons involved in reporting or investigating
alleged or suspected cases of abuse, neglect, or financial
exploitation of at-risk adults and persons involved in
providing services to at-risk adults; (iii) to evaluate means
by which the death might have been prevented; and (iv) to
report its findings to the appropriate agencies and the
Advisory Council and make recommendations that may help to
reduce the number of at-risk adult deaths caused by abuse and
neglect and that may help to improve the investigations of
deaths of at-risk adults and increase prosecutions, if
appropriate.
    (b-5) Each such team shall be composed of representatives
of entities and individuals including, but not limited to:
        (1) the Department on Aging;
        (2) coroners or medical examiners (or both);
        (3) State's Attorneys;
        (4) local police departments;
        (5) forensic units;
        (6) local health departments;
        (7) a social service or health care agency that
    provides services to persons with mental illness, in a
    program whose accreditation to provide such services is
    recognized by the Division of Mental Health within the
    Department of Human Services;
        (8) a social service or health care agency that
    provides services to persons with developmental
    disabilities, in a program whose accreditation to provide
    such services is recognized by the Division of
    Developmental Disabilities within the Department of Human
    Services;
        (9) a local hospital, trauma center, or provider of
    emergency medicine;
        (10) providers of services for eligible adults in
    domestic living situations; and
        (11) a physician, psychiatrist, or other health care
    provider knowledgeable about abuse and neglect of at-risk
    adults.
    (c) A review team shall review cases of deaths of at-risk
adults occurring in its planning and service area (i) involving
blunt force trauma or an undetermined manner or suspicious
cause of death; (ii) if requested by the deceased's attending
physician or an emergency room physician; (iii) upon referral
by a health care provider; (iv) upon referral by a coroner or
medical examiner; (v) constituting an open or closed case from
an adult protective services agency, law enforcement agency,
State's Attorney's office, or the Department of Human Services'
Office of the Inspector General that involves alleged or
suspected abuse, neglect, or financial exploitation; or (vi)
upon referral by a law enforcement agency or State's Attorney's
office. If such a death occurs in a planning and service area
where a review team has not yet been established, the Director
shall request that the Advisory Council or another review team
review that death. A team may also review deaths of at-risk
adults if the alleged abuse or neglect occurred while the
person was residing in a domestic living situation.
    A review team shall meet not less than 4 6 times a year to
discuss cases for its possible review. Each review team, with
the advice and consent of the Department, shall establish
criteria to be used in discussing cases of alleged, suspected,
or substantiated abuse or neglect for review and shall conduct
its activities in accordance with any applicable policies and
procedures established by the Department.
    (c-5) The Illinois Fatality Review Team Advisory Council,
consisting of one member from each review team in Illinois,
shall be the coordinating and oversight body for review teams
and activities in Illinois. The Director may appoint to the
Advisory Council any ex-officio members deemed necessary.
Persons with expertise needed by the Advisory Council may be
invited to meetings. The Advisory Council must select from its
members a chairperson and a vice-chairperson, each to serve a
2-year term. The chairperson or vice-chairperson may be
selected to serve additional, subsequent terms. The Advisory
Council must meet at least 4 times during each calendar year.
    The Department may provide or arrange for the staff support
necessary for the Advisory Council to carry out its duties. The
Director, in cooperation and consultation with the Advisory
Council, shall appoint, reappoint, and remove review team
members.
    The Advisory Council has, but is not limited to, the
following duties:
        (1) To serve as the voice of review teams in Illinois.
        (2) To oversee the review teams in order to ensure that
    the review teams' work is coordinated and in compliance
    with State statutes and the operating protocol.
        (3) To ensure that the data, results, findings, and
    recommendations of the review teams are adequately used in
    a timely manner to make any necessary changes to the
    policies, procedures, and State statutes in order to
    protect at-risk adults.
        (4) To collaborate with the Department in order to
    develop any legislation needed to prevent unnecessary
    deaths of at-risk adults.
        (5) To ensure that the review teams' review processes
    are standardized in order to convey data, findings, and
    recommendations in a usable format.
        (6) To serve as a link with review teams throughout the
    country and to participate in national review team
    activities.
        (7) To provide the review teams with the most current
    information and practices concerning at-risk adult death
    review and related topics.
        (8) To perform any other functions necessary to enhance
    the capability of the review teams to reduce and prevent
    at-risk adult fatalities.
    The Advisory Council may prepare an annual report, in
consultation with the Department, using aggregate data
gathered by review teams and using the review teams'
recommendations to develop education, prevention, prosecution,
or other strategies designed to improve the coordination of
services for at-risk adults and their families.
    In any instance where a review team does not operate in
accordance with established protocol, the Director, in
consultation and cooperation with the Advisory Council, must
take any necessary actions to bring the review team into
compliance with the protocol.
    (d) Any document or oral or written communication shared
within or produced by the review team relating to a case
discussed or reviewed by the review team is confidential and is
not admissible as evidence in any civil or criminal proceeding,
except for use by a State's Attorney's office in prosecuting a
criminal case against a caregiver. Those records and
information are, however, subject to discovery or subpoena, and
are admissible as evidence, to the extent they are otherwise
available to the public.
    Any document or oral or written communication provided to a
review team by an individual or entity, and created by that
individual or entity solely for the use of the review team, is
confidential, is not subject to disclosure to or discoverable
by another party, and is not admissible as evidence in any
civil or criminal proceeding, except for use by a State's
Attorney's office in prosecuting a criminal case against a
caregiver. Those records and information are, however, subject
to discovery or subpoena, and are admissible as evidence, to
the extent they are otherwise available to the public.
    Each entity or individual represented on the fatality
review team may share with other members of the team
information in the entity's or individual's possession
concerning the decedent who is the subject of the review or
concerning any person who was in contact with the decedent, as
well as any other information deemed by the entity or
individual to be pertinent to the review. Any such information
shared by an entity or individual with other members of the
review team is confidential. The intent of this paragraph is to
permit the disclosure to members of the review team of any
information deemed confidential or privileged or prohibited
from disclosure by any other provision of law. Release of
confidential communication between domestic violence advocates
and a domestic violence victim shall follow subsection (d) of
Section 227 of the Illinois Domestic Violence Act of 1986 which
allows for the waiver of privilege afforded to guardians,
executors, or administrators of the estate of the domestic
violence victim. This provision relating to the release of
confidential communication between domestic violence advocates
and a domestic violence victim shall exclude adult protective
service providers.
    A coroner's or medical examiner's office may share with the
review team medical records that have been made available to
the coroner's or medical examiner's office in connection with
that office's investigation of a death.
    Members of a review team and the Advisory Council are not
subject to examination, in any civil or criminal proceeding,
concerning information presented to members of the review team
or the Advisory Council or opinions formed by members of the
review team or the Advisory Council based on that information.
A person may, however, be examined concerning information
provided to a review team or the Advisory Council.
    (d-5) Meetings of the review teams and the Advisory Council
may be closed to the public under the Open Meetings Act.
Records and information provided to a review team and the
Advisory Council, and records maintained by a team or the
Advisory Council, are exempt from release under the Freedom of
Information Act.
    (e) A review team's recommendation in relation to a case
discussed or reviewed by the review team, including, but not
limited to, a recommendation concerning an investigation or
prosecution, may be disclosed by the review team upon the
completion of its review and at the discretion of a majority of
its members who reviewed the case.
    (e-5) The State shall indemnify and hold harmless members
of a review team and the Advisory Council for all their acts,
omissions, decisions, or other conduct arising out of the scope
of their service on the review team or Advisory Council, except
those involving willful or wanton misconduct. The method of
providing indemnification shall be as provided in the State
Employee Indemnification Act.
    (f) The Department, in consultation with coroners, medical
examiners, and law enforcement agencies, shall use aggregate
data gathered by and recommendations from the Advisory Council
and the review teams to create an annual report and may use
those data and recommendations to develop education,
prevention, prosecution, or other strategies designed to
improve the coordination of services for at-risk adults and
their families. The Department or other State or county agency,
in consultation with coroners, medical examiners, and law
enforcement agencies, also may use aggregate data gathered by
the review teams to create a database of at-risk individuals.
    (g) The Department shall adopt such rules and regulations
as it deems necessary to implement this Section.
(Source: P.A. 98-49, eff. 7-1-13; 98-1039, eff. 8-25-14; 99-78,
eff. 7-20-15.)