Bill Text: IL HB3286 | 2021-2022 | 102nd General Assembly | Introduced

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: Amends the Language Assistance Services Act. Provides for the use and availability of qualified medical interpreters (rather than interpreters) in health facilities. Defines "qualified medical interpreters". Provides that 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 a volunteer interpreter. Requires the facility to annually transmit to the Department of Public Health a copy of the updated policy regarding language assistance services and to include a description of the facility's process to ensure adequate and speedy communication between staff and patients with language or communication barriers. Provides that facilities must prepare and maintain a list of contact information for American Sign Language (ASL) interpreter providers or individuals who have been identified as being proficient in sign language, as well as a list of the languages of the population of the geographical area served by the facility. Removes language allowing facilities to consider providing its nonbilingual staff with standardized picture and phrase sheets for use in routine communications with patients who have language or communication barriers. Makes other changes.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 10-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2022-03-04 - Rule 19(a) / Re-referred to Rules Committee [HB3286 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2021-HB3286-Introduced.html

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102ND GENERAL ASSEMBLY State of Illinois 2021 and 2022 HB3286 Introduced , by Rep. Aaron M. Ortiz SYNOPSIS AS INTRODUCED:
210 ILCS 87/5
210 ILCS 87/10
210 ILCS 87/15
Amends the Language Assistance Services Act. Provides for the use and availability of qualified medical interpreters (rather than interpreters) in health facilities. Defines "qualified medical interpreters". Provides that 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 a volunteer interpreter. Requires the facility to annually transmit to the Department of Public Health a copy of the updated policy regarding language assistance services and to include a description of the facility's process to ensure adequate and speedy communication between staff and patients with language or communication barriers. Provides that facilities must prepare and maintain a list of contact information for American Sign Language (ASL) interpreter providers or individuals who have been identified as being proficient in sign language, as well as a list of the languages of the population of the geographical area served by the facility. Removes language allowing facilities to consider providing its nonbilingual staff with standardized picture and phrase sheets for use in routine communications with patients who have language or communication barriers. Makes other changes.
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A BILL FOR
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AN ACT concerning regulation.
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
represented in the General Assembly:
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
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.

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(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
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

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experienced by individuals who are deaf 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
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

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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
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

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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 a 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 on
the premises or accessible 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 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 in conspicuous locations,
notices that advise patients and their families of the

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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
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.
(b) In addition, a health facility may do one or more of
the following:
(1) Identify and record a patient's primary or

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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
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

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the qualified medical interpreter services.
(Source: P.A. 98-756, eff. 7-16-14.)