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| 1 | HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION
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| 2 | WHEREAS, The Department of Healthcare and Family Services | ||||||
| 3 | defines "telehealth" as the use of a telecommunication system | ||||||
| 4 | to provide medical services between places of lesser and | ||||||
| 5 | greater medical capability and/or expertise, for the purpose of | ||||||
| 6 | evaluation and treatment; medical data exchanged can take the | ||||||
| 7 | form of multiple formats: text, graphics, still images, audio | ||||||
| 8 | and video; the information or data exchanged can occur in real | ||||||
| 9 | time (synchronous) through interactive video or multimedia | ||||||
| 10 | collaborative environments or in near real time (asynchronous) | ||||||
| 11 | through "store and forward" applications; and
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| 12 | WHEREAS, Under the State's Medical Assistance Program, | ||||||
| 13 | telehealth services were previously limited to medical | ||||||
| 14 | evaluations between hospitals only; and | ||||||
| 15 | WHEREAS, In order to improve patient access to specialists, | ||||||
| 16 | while supporting the quality of care patients receive, on | ||||||
| 17 | January 29, 2010, the Department of Healthcare and Family | ||||||
| 18 | Services expanded the covered services for telehealth to | ||||||
| 19 | include telemedicine and telepsychiatry; and
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| 20 | WHEREAS, Under telehealth expansion, physicians, advanced | ||||||
| 21 | practice nurses, podiatrists, Federally Qualified Health | ||||||
| 22 | Centers (FQHCs), Rural Health Clinics (RHCs) and Encounter Rate | ||||||
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| 1 | Clinics (ERCs) are now allowed to render telemedicine services; | ||||||
| 2 | and
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| 3 | WHEREAS, Telehealth services are viewed as a | ||||||
| 4 | cost-effective alternative to the more traditional | ||||||
| 5 | face-to-face way of providing medical care; therefore, be it
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| 6 | RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE | ||||||
| 7 | NINETY-NINTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, THE | ||||||
| 8 | SENATE CONCURRING HEREIN, that there is created the Telehealth | ||||||
| 9 | Services Committee (Committee) to study and assess the cost | ||||||
| 10 | savings achieved through the expansion of telehealth services | ||||||
| 11 | under the State's Medical Assistance Program and to evaluate | ||||||
| 12 | the efficiency and effectiveness of telehealth services under | ||||||
| 13 | the State's Medical Assistance Program; and be it further
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| 14 | RESOLVED, That the Committee shall be composed of the | ||||||
| 15 | following members: | ||||||
| 16 | (1) two members appointed by the Speaker of the House | ||||||
| 17 | of Representatives; | ||||||
| 18 | (2)
two members appointed by the Minority Leader of the | ||||||
| 19 | House of Representatives; | ||||||
| 20 | (3)
two members appointed by the President of the | ||||||
| 21 | Senate; | ||||||
| 22 | (4)
two members appointed by the Minority Leader of the | ||||||
| 23 | Senate; and | ||||||
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| 1 | (5)
one member appointed by the Governor; and be it | ||||||
| 2 | further | ||||||
| 3 | RESOLVED, That the members of the Committee shall be | ||||||
| 4 | appointed no later than 30 days after the effective date of | ||||||
| 5 | this resolution and shall serve without compensation; and be it | ||||||
| 6 | further | ||||||
| 7 | RESOLVED, That the Department of Healthcare and Family | ||||||
| 8 | Services shall provide administrative support to the | ||||||
| 9 | Committee; and be it further | ||||||
| 10 | RESOLVED, That the Committee shall submit a report on its | ||||||
| 11 | findings to the Governor and the General Assembly by August 1, | ||||||
| 12 | 2016.
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