Bill Amendment: IL HB3714 | 2023-2024 | 103rd General Assembly

NOTE: For additional amemendments please see the Bill Drafting List

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Bill Title: LANGUAGE ASSISTANCE SERVICES

Status: 2024-04-19 - House Floor Amendment No. 1 Rule 19(c) / Re-referred to Rules Committee [HB3714 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2023-HB3714-House_Amendment_001.html

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Rep. Aaron M. Ortiz

Filed: 3/23/2023

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AMENDMENT TO HOUSE BILL 3714
AMENDMENT NO. ______. Amend House Bill 3714 by replacing
everything after the enacting clause with the following:
"Section 5. The Language Assistance Services Act is
amended by changing Sections 5, 10, and 15 as follows:
(210 ILCS 87/5)
Sec. 5. Legislative findings. The General Assembly finds
and declares that Illinois is becoming a land of people whose
languages and cultures give the state a global quality. The
Legislature further finds and declares that access to basic
health care services is the right of every individual living
in resident of the State, and that access to information
regarding basic health care services is an essential element
of that right.
Therefore, it is the intent of the General Assembly that
where language or communication barriers exist between

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patients and the staff of a health facility, arrangements
shall be made for a qualified medical interpreter in order to
provide meaningful access for patients, or family members,
caretakers, or decision makers of patients, who are limited
English proficient or deaf or hard of hearing interpreters or
bilingual professional staff to ensure adequate and speedy
communication between patients and staff.
(Source: P.A. 88-244.)
(210 ILCS 87/10)
Sec. 10. Definitions. As used in this Act:
"Department" means the Department of Public Health.
"Health facility" means a hospital licensed under the
Hospital Licensing Act, a long-term care facility licensed
under the Nursing Home Care Act, or a facility licensed under
the ID/DD Community Care Act, the MC/DD Act, or the
Specialized Mental Health Rehabilitation Act of 2013.
"Interpreter" means a person fluent in English and in the
necessary language of the patient who can accurately speak,
read, and readily interpret the necessary second language, or
a person who can accurately sign and read sign language.
Interpreters shall have the ability to translate the names of
body parts and to describe completely symptoms and injuries in
both languages. Interpreters may include members of the
medical or professional staff.
"Language or communication barriers" means either of the

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following:
(1) With respect to spoken language, barriers that are
experienced by limited-English-speaking or
non-English-speaking individuals who speak the same
primary language, if those individuals constitute at least
5% of the patients served by the health facility annually.
(2) With respect to sign language, barriers that are
experienced by individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing
and whose primary language is sign language.
"Limited English proficient" means a patient, or the
family member, caretaker, or decision maker of a patient, who
may have a limited ability to read, write, speak, or
understand English.
"Health facility" means a hospital licensed under the
Hospital Licensing Act, a long-term care facility licensed
under the Nursing Home Care Act, or a facility licensed under
the ID/DD Community Care Act, the MC/DD Act, or the
Specialized Mental Health Rehabilitation Act of 2013.
"Meaningful access" means the provision of services in a
manner that is equally accessible and meaningful to all
individuals seeking services regardless of their ability to
speak or understand English.
"Medical interpreter techniques competency" means:
(1) having received training that includes the
techniques and ethics of interpreting;
(2) the ability to speak, read, write, and understand

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English as well as another language other than English;
(3) having fundamental knowledge in both English and
the alternate language of any specialized terms, concepts,
and cultural awareness;
(4) understanding the role of culture in a health care
setting; and
(5) abiding by a code of medical interpreter standards
and professional ethics.
"Qualified medical interpreter" means a qualified
individual with medical interpreter techniques competency to
provide and facilitate oral communication between 2 or more
conversing parties that do not speak each other's language and
who is either proficient in 2 or more languages or an
interpreter in American Sign Language (ASL) with appropriate
licensure.
(Source: P.A. 98-104, eff. 7-22-13; 99-180, eff. 7-29-15.)
(210 ILCS 87/15)
Sec. 15. Language assistance services.
(a) To ensure access to health care information and
services for individuals who are limited English proficient,
limited-English-speaking or non-English-speaking, and deaf or
hard of hearing residents and deaf residents, a health
facility must do the following:
(1) Adopt and review annually a policy for providing
language assistance services to patients with language or

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communication barriers. The policy shall include
procedures for providing, to the extent possible as
determined by the facility, the use of a qualified medical
an interpreter whenever a language or communication
barrier exists, except where the patient, after being
informed of the availability of the qualified medical
interpreter services service, chooses to use a family
member or friend who volunteers to interpret, which shall
be documented in the patient's medical chart. Employees of
a health facility have the right to use a qualified
medical interpreter for their own communication with a
limited English proficient patient if a conversation
between the limited English proficient patient and the
employee would be jeopardized by the use of the patient's
volunteer interpreter. The procedures shall be designed to
maximize efficient use of qualified medical interpreters
and minimize delays in the provision of qualified medical
providing interpreters to limited English proficient
patients. The procedures shall ensure insure, to the
extent possible as determined by the facility, that
qualified medical interpreters are available, either
in-person on the premises or accessible remotely by
telephone, 24 hours a day. The facility shall annually
transmit to the Department of Public Health a copy of the
updated policy regarding language assistance services and
shall include a description of the facility's process to

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ensure adequate and speedy communication between staff and
patients with language or communication barriers and shall
include a description of the facility's efforts to insure
adequate and speedy communication between patients with
language or communication barriers and staff.
(2) Develop, and post, either by physical or
electronic means, in conspicuous locations, notices that
advise patients and their families of the availability of
qualified medical interpreters, the procedure for
obtaining a qualified medical an interpreter, and the
telephone numbers to call for filing complaints concerning
qualified medical interpreter service problems, including,
but not limited to, a TTY or video relay service (VRS)
number for persons who are deaf or hard of hearing. The
notices shall be posted, at a minimum, in the emergency
room, the admitting area, the facility entrance, and the
outpatient areas area. Notices shall inform limited
English proficient and deaf or hard of hearing patients
that qualified medical interpreter services are available
upon on request, shall list the languages most commonly
encountered at the facility for which qualified medical
interpreter services are available, and shall instruct
patients to direct complaints regarding qualified medical
interpreter services to the Department of Public Health,
including the telephone numbers to call for that purpose.
(3) Notify the facility's employees of the language

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assistance services available at the facility and train
the employees them on how to access make those language
services available for limited English proficient and deaf
or hard of hearing to patients.
(4) If qualified medical interpreters of a specific
language are limited in availability, the health facility
shall not have fines and penalties imposed. Qualified
medical interpreters are limited in availability if a
facility attempts to contact at least 3 agencies offering
interpretation services, the agencies are unable to
provide qualified medical interpreters for the requested
language, and the facility documents the date, time, and
result of each attempt to acquire a qualified medical
interpreter for the patient's language.
(5) If a health facility contracts with a third party
for medical interpreter services and the third party
attests to the status of the provided interpreters as
qualified medical interpreters, then the health facility
shall not have fines and penalties imposed related to the
qualifications of the interpreter.
(b) In addition, a health facility may do one or more of
the following:
(1) Identify and record a patient's primary or
preferred language and dialect on one or more of the
following: a patient medical chart, electronic medical
record, or hospital bracelet, bedside notice, or nursing

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card.
(2) Prepare and maintain, as needed, a list of contact
information for American Sign Language (ASL) interpreter
providers or individuals interpreters who have been
identified as being as proficient in sign language as a
person with a master's level proficient in sign language,
according to the Interpreter for the Deaf Licensure Act of
2007, as well as and a list of the languages of the
population of the geographical area served by the
facility.
(3) Review all standardized written forms, waivers,
documents, and informational materials available to
limited English proficient patients on admission to
determine documents that may require translation which to
translate into languages other than English.
(4) (Blank). Consider providing its nonbilingual staff
with standardized picture and phrase sheets for use in
routine communications with patients who have language or
communication barriers.
(5) Develop community liaison groups to enable the
facility and the limited English proficient
limited-English-speaking, non-English-speaking, and deaf
or hard of hearing communities to ensure the adequacy of
the qualified medical interpreter services.
(Source: P.A. 102-4, eff. 4-27-21.)".