(225 ILCS 30/10) (from Ch. 111, par. 8401-10)

(Section scheduled to be repealed on January 1, 2028)

Sec. 10. Definitions. As used in this Act:

"Accreditation Council for Education in Nutrition and Dietetics" means the autonomous accrediting agency for education programs that prepares students to begin careers as registered dietitian nutritionists or registered nutrition and dietetics technicians.

"Address of record" means the designated address recorded by the Department in the applicant's or licensee's application file or license file as maintained by the Department's licensure maintenance unit.

"Board" means the Dietitian Nutritionist Practice Board appointed by the Secretary.

"Board for Certification of Nutrition Specialists" means the certifying board that credentials certified nutrition specialists.

"Certified clinical nutritionist" means an individual certified by the Clinical Nutrition Certification Board.

"Certified nutrition specialist" means an individual credentialed by the Board for Certification of Nutrition Specialists that authorizes the individual to use the title "certified nutrition specialist" and the abbreviation "C.N.S.".

"Commission on Dietetic Registration" means the credentialing agency for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

"Department" means the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation.

"Dietetics" means the integration, application, and communication of practice principles derived from the sciences of food, nutrition, social, business, and basic sciences to achieve and maintain the optimal nutrition status of individuals and groups.

"Diplomate of the American Clinical Board of Nutrition" means an individual credentialed by the American Clinical Board of Nutrition who is authorized to use the title "Diplomate of the American Clinical Board of Nutrition" and the abbreviation "DACBN".

"Email address of record" means the designated email address recorded by the Department in the applicant's application file or the licensee's license file, as maintained by the Department's licensure maintenance unit.

"General nonmedical nutrition information" includes, but is not limited to, information on any of the following:

(1) principles of good nutrition and food preparation;

(2) essential nutrients needed by the human body;

(3) actions of nutrients in the human body;

(4) nonindividualized effects of deficiencies or excesses of nutrients in the human body;

(5) foods, herbs, and dietary supplements that are good sources of essential nutrients in the human body or otherwise useful to maintain good health; or

(6) principles of self-care and healthy relationships with food.

"Health care professional" means a physician licensed under the Medical Practice Act of 1987, an advanced practice registered nurse licensed under the Nurse Practice Act, or a physician assistant licensed under the Physician Assistant Practice Act of 1987.

"Independent private practice of medical nutrition therapy" means the application of dietetics and nutrition knowledge and skills by an individual who regulates and is responsible for the nutritionist's own practice or treatment procedures.

"Licensed dietitian nutritionist" means a person licensed under this Act to practice dietetics and nutrition, including the provision of medical nutrition therapy, as defined in this Section. Activities of a licensed dietitian nutritionist do not include performing medical diagnosis of human ailments or conditions of an individual.

"Medical nutrition therapy" means nutrition care services provided for the treatment or management of a disease or medical condition. "Medical nutrition therapy" includes the provision of any part or all of the following services, with notification to the patient's physician and appropriate record retention, or pursuant to the protocols, policies, or procedures of a health care facility, as defined in Section 3 of the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Act:

(1) interpreting anthropometric, biochemical, clinical, and dietary data in acute and chronic disease states and recommending and ordering nutrient needs based on the dietary data, including, but not limited to, enteral and parenteral nutrition;

(2) food and nutrition counseling, including counseling regarding prescription drug interactions;

(3) developing and managing food service operations with functions in nutrition care, including operations connected with healthcare facilities, implicated in the ordering, preparation, or serving of therapeutic diets, or otherwise utilized in the management or treatment of disease or medical conditions; and

(4) medical weight control.

"Medical weight control" means medical nutrition therapy for the purpose of reducing, maintaining, or gaining weight.

"Nonmedical weight control" means nutrition care services for the purpose of reducing, maintaining, or gaining weight that do not constitute the treatment of a disease or medical condition. "Nonmedical weight control" includes weight control services for healthy population groups to achieve or maintain a healthy weight.

"Nutrition assessment" means the systematic process of obtaining, verifying, and interpreting biochemical, anthropometric, physical, nutrigenomic, and dietary data in order to make decisions about the nature and cause of nutrition-related problems, including an ongoing, dynamic process that: (i) involves an initial data collection and a reassessment and analysis of client or community needs; and (ii) provides the foundation for identifying and labeling problems and making nutritional recommendations and ordering nutritional interventions, including enteral and parenteral nutrition.

"Nutrition care services" means any part of the following services provided within a systematic process:

(1) assessing and evaluating the nutritional needs of individuals and groups and determining resources and constraints in the practice setting;

(2) ordering nutrition-related laboratory tests in accordance with State law to check and track nutrition status and monitor effectiveness of nutrition interventions, dietary plans, and orders;

(3) establishing priorities, goals, and objectives that meet an individual's nutritional needs and are consistent with available resources and constraints;

(4) providing nutrition counseling in health and disease;

(5) developing, implementing, and managing nutrition care systems and food service operations;

(6) evaluating, making changes in, and maintaining appropriate standards of quality in food and nutrition services; and

(7) recommending, ordering, and providing therapeutic diets.

"Nutrition counseling" means a supportive process, characterized by a collaborative counselor-patient or counselor-client relationship with individuals or groups, to establish food and nutrition priorities, goals, and individualized action plans and general physical activity guidance that acknowledge and foster responsibility for self-care to treat an existing condition or to promote health.

"Nutrition intervention" means the purposefully planned actions and counseling intended to positively change a nutrition-related behavior, risk factor, environmental condition, or aspect of the health status for an individual, target groups, or the community at large.

"Nutrition monitoring and evaluation" means identifying patient or client outcomes relevant to the patient's or client's identified and labeled nutritional problems and comparing the outcomes with the patient's or client's previous health status, intervention goals, or reference standards to determine the progress made in achieving desired outcomes of nutrition care and whether planned nutrition interventions should be continued or revised.

"Patient" means an individual recipient of medical nutrition therapy, whether in the outpatient, inpatient, or nonclinical setting.

"Practice experience" means a preprofessional, documented, supervised experience obtained by a supervisee in the practice of dietetics and nutrition and the provision of medical nutrition therapy that is acceptable to the Department as compliance with requirements for licensure, as specified in Section 45. It includes a planned, continuous, and documented, supervised practice experience obtained under the supervision of a qualified supervisor, as defined in this Section, which is a component of the educational requirements for licensure, as specified in Section 45.

"Qualified supervisor" means:

(1) When supervising the provision of medical nutrition therapy by a supervisee, an individual who is:

(A) a registered dietitian nutritionist or a certified nutrition specialist;

(B) a licensed dietitian nutritionist licensed pursuant to this Act; or

(C) a health care professional licensed under the laws of the State, including a licensed or certified dietitian nutritionist, who acts under the licensed scope of practice.

(2) When supervising the provision of nutrition care services not constituting medical nutrition therapy by a supervisee, an individual who either meets the requirements of paragraph (1) or all of the following requirements:

(A) has been regularly employed or self-employed in the field of clinical nutrition for at least 3 of the last 5 years immediately preceding commencement of the applicant's supervised practice experience; and

(B) holds a doctoral degree with a major course of study in dietetics, human nutrition, foods and nutrition, community nutrition, public health nutrition, nutrition education, nutrition, nutrition science, clinical nutrition, applied clinical nutrition, nutrition counseling, nutrition and functional medicine, nutritional biochemistry, nutrition and integrative health, or an equivalent course of study as recommended by the Board and approved by the Department conferred by either:

(i) a United States regionally accredited college or university accredited at the time of graduation from the appropriate regional accrediting agency recognized by the Council on Higher Education Accreditation and the United States Department of Education; or

(ii) an institution outside the United States and its territories with the supervisor's doctoral degree validated as equivalent to the doctoral degree conferred by a United States regionally accredited college or university as recommended by the Board and approved by the Department.

A "qualified supervisor" under paragraph (1) shall be licensed in the State if supervising a supervisee providing medical nutrition therapy to an individual in the State.

"Registered dietitian" or "registered dietitian nutritionist" means an individual who is credentialed as a registered dietitian or registered dietitian nutritionist by the Commission on Dietetic Registration, the accrediting body of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, or its successor organization, and is authorized to use the titles "registered dietitian nutritionist" and "registered dietitian" and the corresponding abbreviations "RDN" and "RD".

"Secretary" means the Secretary of Financial and Professional Regulation or a person authorized by the Secretary to act in the Secretary's stead.

"Telehealth" or "telepractice" means the delivery of services under this Act by using electronic communication, information technologies, or other means between an individual licensed under this Act in one location and a patient or client in another location, with or without an intervening healthcare provider. "Telehealth" or "telepractice" includes direct, interactive patient encounters, asynchronous store-and-forward technologies, and remote monitoring. Telehealth or telepractice is not prohibited under this Act provided that the provision of telehealth or telepractice services is appropriate for the client and the level of care provided meets the required level of care for that client. Individuals providing services regulated by this Act via telepractice shall comply with and are subject to all licensing and disciplinary provisions of this Act.

"Therapeutic diet" means a nutrition intervention prescribed by a health care professional or other authorized practitioner that provides food or nutrients via oral, enteral, and parenteral routes as part of treatment of disease or clinical conditions to modify, eliminate, decrease, or increase identified micronutrients and macronutrients in the diet, or to provide mechanically altered food when indicated.

(Source: P.A. 102-945, eff. 1-1-23.)