Sen. Ram Villivalam

Filed: 3/3/2023

 

 


 

 


 
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1
AMENDMENT TO SENATE BILL 2427

2    AMENDMENT NO. ______. Amend Senate Bill 2427 by replacing
3everything after the enacting clause with the following:
 
4    "Section 5. The Department of Professional Regulation Law
5of the Civil Administrative Code of Illinois is amended by
6adding Section 2105-15.8 as follows:
 
7    (20 ILCS 2105/2105-15.8 new)
8    Sec. 2105-15.8. Continuing education; health care cultural
9competency.
10    (a) The General Assembly finds and declares the following:
11        (1) Health and equity and equitable access to
12    affirming health care are essential values of the State.
13    However, despite patient demographics in the State
14    changing rapidly since 2000, the State still does not have
15    a formal requirement for health care professionals to stay
16    abreast of the trends needed to meet the social and

 

 

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1    cultural needs of an evolving patient base. This lack of
2    updated social and cultural knowledge by health care
3    professionals impacts communities of color, people of
4    diverse faiths, people with disabilities, immigrants with
5    or without status, people who are intersex, people living
6    with HIV, and LGBTQ+ people, among other populations.
7        (2) According to a citation in "I Am Not The Doctor For
8    You: Physicians' Attitudes About Caring for People With
9    Disabilities" in the October 2022 edition of Health
10    Affairs, regarding care for people with disabilities, only
11    41% of physicians reported that they were very confident
12    about their ability to provide the same quality of care to
13    people with disabilities as those without, and just 57% of
14    physicians strongly agreed that they welcomed people with
15    disabilities into their practices.
16        (3) According to the Center for American Progress,
17    about half of transgender people in the United States have
18    been mistreated by a health care professional. Per the
19    2015 U.S. Transgender Survey data for the State, 33% of
20    those who saw a health care provider in the past year
21    reported having at least one negative experience related
22    to being transgender, and 24% of respondents did not see a
23    doctor when they needed to because of fear of being
24    mistreated as a transgender person.
25        (4) According to a survey by Healthgrades in 2022, 25%
26    of patients said their doctors could benefit from more

 

 

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1    training. The number jumps to 29% among non-white patients
2    in the survey.
3        (5) Many providers recognize the importance of
4    cultural competency for their personal education.
5    According to the Healthgrades survey, 31% of physicians
6    agree that their level of cultural competency can impact
7    their ability to provide optimal patient care somewhat or
8    a lot. Furthermore, the generational divide among
9    physicians is strong on additional training that would
10    better equip them to care for patients of different
11    gender, racial, sexual, or cultural identities. Two in 5
12    younger physicians with less than 10 years of training are
13    interested in additional training. Only one in 5 of older
14    physicians with more than 20 years of practice express
15    interest in cultural competency training.
16        (6) In 2019, the American Medical Association adopted
17    a policy that included recognition of the importance of
18    cultural competency to patient experience and treatment
19    plan adherence and encouraged the implementation of
20    cultural competency practices across health care settings.
21        (7) Furthermore, many thousands of health care
22    professionals in the State, including tens of thousands of
23    physicians and nurses, are already required to comply with
24    the cultural competency requirements in the State's
25    contract with managed care organizations, which states
26    that contractors shall implement a cultural competence

 

 

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1    plan, and covered services shall be provided in a
2    culturally competent manner by ensuring the cultural
3    competence of all contractor staff, including clerical to
4    executive management, and providers.
5        (8) As a next step to ensuring all health care
6    professionals are trained and equipped in cultural
7    competency, the State should join jurisdictions like
8    Connecticut, New Jersey, and the District of Columbia to
9    require that health care professionals be trained in
10    cultural competency as part of continuing education.
11    Having such a requirement will increase the ability of
12    medical providers to meet the social and cultural needs of
13    their diversifying patient base.
14    (b) As used in this Section:
15    "Cultural competency" means a set of integrated attitudes,
16knowledge, and skills that enables a health care professional
17or organization to care effectively for patients from diverse
18cultures, groups, and communities. "Cultural competency"
19includes, but is not limited to: (i) applying linguistic
20skills to communicate effectively with the target population;
21(ii) utilizing cultural information to establish therapeutic
22relationships; (iii) eliciting and incorporating pertinent
23cultural data in diagnosis and treatment; and (iv)
24understanding and applying cultural and ethnic data to the
25process of clinic care.
26    "Health care professional" means a person licensed or

 

 

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1registered by the Department of Financial and Professional
2Regulation under the Nurse Practice Act, the Clinical
3Psychologist Licensing Act, the Illinois Dental Practice Act,
4the Pharmacy Practice Act, the Illinois Physical Therapy Act,
5the Physician Assistant Practice Act of 1987, the Acupuncture
6Practice Act, the Illinois Athletic Trainers Practice Act, the
7Clinical Social Work and Social Work Practice Act, the
8Dietitian Nutritionist Practice Act, the Naprapathic Practice
9Act, the Nursing Home Administrators Licensing and
10Disciplinary Act, the Illinois Occupational Therapy Practice
11Act, the Illinois Optometric Practice Act of 1987, the
12Podiatric Medical Practice Act of 1987, the Respiratory Care
13Practice Act, the Professional Counselor and Clinical
14Professional Counselor Licensing and Practice Act, the Sex
15Offender Evaluation and Treatment Provider Act, the Illinois
16Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology Practice Act, the
17Perfusionist Practice Act, the Genetic Counselor Licensing
18Act, the Licensed Certified Professional Midwife Practice Act,
19the Marriage and Family Therapy Licensing Act, the Behavior
20Analyst Licensing Act, the Music Therapy Licensing and
21Practice Act, the Environmental Health Practitioner Licensing
22Act, the Orthotics, Prosthetics, and Pedorthics Practice Act,
23and the Medical Practice Act of 1987.
24    (c) The cultural competency training required by this
25Section shall include information on sensitivity relating to
26and best practices for providing affirming care to people in

 

 

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1the person's preferred language, communities of color, people
2of diverse faiths, people with disabilities, documented or
3undocumented immigrants, people who are intersex, people
4living with HIV, and people of diverse sexual orientations and
5gender identities, including, but not limited to, lesbian,
6gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, pansexual, asexual, and
7questioning individuals.
8    (d) For every license or registration renewal occurring on
9or after the effective date of this amendatory Act of the 103rd
10General Assembly, a health care professional who has
11continuing education requirements must complete at least 5
12hours in cultural competency training.
13    (e) The hours required by this Section may count toward
14meeting the minimum credit hours required for continuing
15education. Any cultural competency training applied to meet
16any other State licensure requirement, professional
17accreditation or certification requirement, or health care
18institutional practice agreement may count toward the
19requirements under this Section.
20    (f) The Department may adopt rules for the implementation
21and administration of this Section.
 
22    Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect January
231, 2024.".