SB2427sam001 103RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Sen. Ram Villivalam

Filed: 3/3/2023

10300SB2427sam001 LRB103 25651 SPS 58498 a

AMENDMENT TO SENATE BILL 2427

AMENDMENT NO. ______. Amend Senate Bill 2427 by replacing everything after the enacting clause with the following:

"Section 5. The Department of Professional Regulation Law of the Civil Administrative Code of Illinois is amended by adding Section 2105-15.8 as follows:

(20 ILCS 2105/2105-15.8 new)

Sec. 2105-15.8. Continuing education; health care cultural competency.

(a) The General Assembly finds and declares the following:

(1) Health and equity and equitable access to affirming health care are essential values of the State. However, despite patient demographics in the State changing rapidly since 2000, the State still does not have a formal requirement for health care professionals to stay abreast of the trends needed to meet the social and cultural needs of an evolving patient base. This lack of updated social and cultural knowledge by health care professionals impacts communities of color, people of diverse faiths, people with disabilities, immigrants with or without status, people who are intersex, people living with HIV, and LGBTQ+ people, among other populations.

(2) According to a citation in "I Am Not The Doctor For You: Physicians' Attitudes About Caring for People With Disabilities" in the October 2022 edition of Health Affairs, regarding care for people with disabilities, only 41% of physicians reported that they were very confident about their ability to provide the same quality of care to people with disabilities as those without, and just 57% of physicians strongly agreed that they welcomed people with disabilities into their practices.

(3) According to the Center for American Progress, about half of transgender people in the United States have been mistreated by a health care professional. Per the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey data for the State, 33% of those who saw a health care provider in the past year reported having at least one negative experience related to being transgender, and 24% of respondents did not see a doctor when they needed to because of fear of being mistreated as a transgender person.

(4) According to a survey by Healthgrades in 2022, 25% of patients said their doctors could benefit from more training. The number jumps to 29% among non-white patients in the survey.

(5) Many providers recognize the importance of cultural competency for their personal education. According to the Healthgrades survey, 31% of physicians agree that their level of cultural competency can impact their ability to provide optimal patient care somewhat or a lot. Furthermore, the generational divide among physicians is strong on additional training that would better equip them to care for patients of different gender, racial, sexual, or cultural identities. Two in 5 younger physicians with less than 10 years of training are interested in additional training. Only one in 5 of older physicians with more than 20 years of practice express interest in cultural competency training.

(6) In 2019, the American Medical Association adopted a policy that included recognition of the importance of cultural competency to patient experience and treatment plan adherence and encouraged the implementation of cultural competency practices across health care settings.

(7) Furthermore, many thousands of health care professionals in the State, including tens of thousands of physicians and nurses, are already required to comply with the cultural competency requirements in the State's contract with managed care organizations, which states that contractors shall implement a cultural competence plan, and covered services shall be provided in a culturally competent manner by ensuring the cultural competence of all contractor staff, including clerical to executive management, and providers.

(8) As a next step to ensuring all health care professionals are trained and equipped in cultural competency, the State should join jurisdictions like Connecticut, New Jersey, and the District of Columbia to require that health care professionals be trained in cultural competency as part of continuing education. Having such a requirement will increase the ability of medical providers to meet the social and cultural needs of their diversifying patient base.

(b) As used in this Section:

"Cultural competency" means a set of integrated attitudes, knowledge, and skills that enables a health care professional or organization to care effectively for patients from diverse cultures, groups, and communities. "Cultural competency" includes, but is not limited to: (i) applying linguistic skills to communicate effectively with the target population; (ii) utilizing cultural information to establish therapeutic relationships; (iii) eliciting and incorporating pertinent cultural data in diagnosis and treatment; and (iv) understanding and applying cultural and ethnic data to the process of clinic care.

"Health care professional" means a person licensed or registered by the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation under the Nurse Practice Act, the Clinical Psychologist Licensing Act, the Illinois Dental Practice Act, the Pharmacy Practice Act, the Illinois Physical Therapy Act, the Physician Assistant Practice Act of 1987, the Acupuncture Practice Act, the Illinois Athletic Trainers Practice Act, the Clinical Social Work and Social Work Practice Act, the Dietitian Nutritionist Practice Act, the Naprapathic Practice Act, the Nursing Home Administrators Licensing and Disciplinary Act, the Illinois Occupational Therapy Practice Act, the Illinois Optometric Practice Act of 1987, the Podiatric Medical Practice Act of 1987, the Respiratory Care Practice Act, the Professional Counselor and Clinical Professional Counselor Licensing and Practice Act, the Sex Offender Evaluation and Treatment Provider Act, the Illinois Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology Practice Act, the Perfusionist Practice Act, the Genetic Counselor Licensing Act, the Licensed Certified Professional Midwife Practice Act, the Marriage and Family Therapy Licensing Act, the Behavior Analyst Licensing Act, the Music Therapy Licensing and Practice Act, the Environmental Health Practitioner Licensing Act, the Orthotics, Prosthetics, and Pedorthics Practice Act, and the Medical Practice Act of 1987.

(c) The cultural competency training required by this Section shall include information on sensitivity relating to and best practices for providing affirming care to people in the person's preferred language, communities of color, people of diverse faiths, people with disabilities, documented or undocumented immigrants, people who are intersex, people living with HIV, and people of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities, including, but not limited to, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, pansexual, asexual, and questioning individuals.

(d) For every license or registration renewal occurring on or after the effective date of this amendatory Act of the 103rd General Assembly, a health care professional who has continuing education requirements must complete at least 5 hours in cultural competency training.

(e) The hours required by this Section may count toward meeting the minimum credit hours required for continuing education. Any cultural competency training applied to meet any other State licensure requirement, professional accreditation or certification requirement, or health care institutional practice agreement may count toward the requirements under this Section.

(f) The Department may adopt rules for the implementation and administration of this Section.

Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect January 1, 2024.".