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.)