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| 1 | AN ACT concerning State government.
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| 2 | Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
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| 3 | represented in the General Assembly:
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| 4 | Section 5. The Department of Public Health Powers and | ||||||
| 5 | Duties Law of the
Civil Administrative Code of Illinois is | ||||||
| 6 | amended by adding Section 216 as follows: | ||||||
| 7 | (20 ILCS 2310/216 new) | ||||||
| 8 | Sec. 216. Culturally Competent Healthcare Demonstration | ||||||
| 9 | Program. | ||||||
| 10 | (a) Research demonstrates that racial and ethnic | ||||||
| 11 | minorities generally receive health care that is of a lesser | ||||||
| 12 | quality than the majority population and have poorer health | ||||||
| 13 | outcomes on a number of measures. The 2007 State Health | ||||||
| 14 | Improvement Plan calls for increased cultural competence in | ||||||
| 15 | Illinois health care settings, based on national standards that | ||||||
| 16 | indicate cultural competence is an important aspect of the | ||||||
| 17 | quality of health care delivered to racial, ethnic, religious, | ||||||
| 18 | and sexual minorities. Based on the research and national | ||||||
| 19 | standards, the General Assembly finds that increasing cultural | ||||||
| 20 | competence among health care providers will improve the quality | ||||||
| 21 | of health care delivered to minorities in Illinois. | ||||||
| 22 | (b) Subject to appropriation for this purpose, the | ||||||
| 23 | Department shall establish the Culturally Competent Health | ||||||
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| 1 | Care Demonstration Program. For purposes of this Section, | ||||||
| 2 | "culturally competent health care" means the ability of health | ||||||
| 3 | care providers to understand and respond to the cultural and | ||||||
| 4 | linguistic needs brought by patients to the health care | ||||||
| 5 | encounter. The Program shall establish models that reflect best | ||||||
| 6 | practices in culturally competent health care and that expand | ||||||
| 7 | the delivery of culturally competent health care in Illinois. | ||||||
| 8 | (c) The Program shall consist of (i) demonstration grants | ||||||
| 9 | awarded by the Department to public or private health care | ||||||
| 10 | entities geographically distributed around the State; (ii) an | ||||||
| 11 | ongoing collaborative learning project among the grantees; and | ||||||
| 12 | (iii) an evaluation of the effect of the demonstration grants | ||||||
| 13 | in improving the quality of health care for racial and ethnic | ||||||
| 14 | minorities. The Department may contract with a vendor with | ||||||
| 15 | experience in racial and ethnic health disparities and cultural | ||||||
| 16 | competency to conduct the evaluation and provide support for | ||||||
| 17 | the collaborative learning project. The vendor shall be a | ||||||
| 18 | not-for-profit organization that represents a partnership of | ||||||
| 19 | public, private, and voluntary health organizations that | ||||||
| 20 | focuses on prevention, development of the public health system, | ||||||
| 21 | and the reduction of racial and ethnic health disparities, and | ||||||
| 22 | that engages health disparities stakeholders in its efforts.
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| 23 | Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon | ||||||
| 24 | becoming law.
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