January
11, 2019
To
the Honorable Members of
The
Illinois Senate,
100th
General Assembly:
Today, I
veto Senate Bill 938 from the 100th General Assembly, which would undermine the
State’s ability to ensure residents with serious mental illness receive care in
accordance with the goals and terms of the Specialized Mental Health
Rehabilitation Act of 2013 and would allow certain facilities to operate
outside of the licensure requirements of that Act.
When the
General Assembly passed the Specialized Mental Health Rehabilitation Act of
2013, it recognized that Illinois was not effectively addressing the needs of residents
with behavioral and/or mental health issues and specifically created a new
system of facility licensure to ensure that Illinois could meet the unique
rehabilitative needs of these residents. The Department of Public Health was
tasked with licensure authority of these Specialized Mental Health
Rehabilitation facilities (“SMHRFs”).
This
legislation would create a number of problems for effective regulation of
SMHRFs. Currently, the required number of rooms reserved for single occupancy is
set by the Department’s administrative rules on a per-facility basis. This
legislation would overturn the rule to require a state-wide calculation of the
room requirement. It also further limits the Department’s ability to issue new
SMHRF licenses in the future. These changes undermine the Act’s intention to
ensure the availability of appropriate care options across the state.
Further,
this bill would create unnecessary legal and regulatory uncertainty
regarding the oversight of certain facilities. The legislation would result
in facilities that are in the process of coming into compliance
with the current SMHRF licensure requirements being removed from the
Department’s regulatory purview. This would occur because there is
no other licensure framework appropriate for affected facilities.
Licensure under the Nursing Home Care Act for these facilities is
likely inapplicable because of the nature and extent of the mental health
services these facilities provide. Ultimately, this uncertainty will
jeopardize the health and safety of the residents served by the facilities.
This
legislation does not support the underlying goals of the Act to transition Illinois
to a more holistic and effective system of behavioral health treatment options
that best serve our families, friends, and neighbors in need of care.
Therefore,
pursuant to Section 9(b) of Article IV of the Illinois Constitution of 1970, I
hereby return Senate Bill 938, entitled “AN ACT concerning health,” with the
foregoing objections, vetoed in its entirety.
Sincerely,
Bruce
Rauner
GOVERNOR