Amends the Alternative Health Care Delivery Act and the Hospital Licensing Act. Sets forth the General Assembly's findings concerning the screening of newborns for congenital heart defects. Provides that all birth centers and hospitals must test every newborn for congenital heart defects via a screening test in line with the current standard of care, such as pulse oximetry screening, according to congenital heart defect screening protocols developed by the Department of Public Health in consultation with relevant medical practitioners and stakeholders. Provides that exceptions to mandatory congenital heart defect screenings shall be limited to cases in which the parents object to the screening, or as directed by the congenital heart defect screening protocol.
Sponsored bills
Amends the Illinois Vehicle Code. Provides that a 3-axle truck mixer registered as a Special Hauling Vehicle, used exclusively for the mixing and transportation of concrete in the plastic state, may, when laden, transmit upon the road surface, except when on part of the National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, the following maximum weights: 22,000 pounds on a single axle; 40,000 pounds on a tandem axle; and 54,000 pounds gross weight on a 3-axle vehicle. Provides that a 3-axle combination sewer cleaning jetting vacuum truck registered as a Special Hauling Vehicle, used exclusively for the transportation of non-hazardous solid waste, may, when laden, transmit upon the road surface, except when on part of the National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, the following maximum weights: 22,000 pounds on a single axle; 40,000 pounds on a tandem axle; and 54,000 pounds gross weight on a 3-axle vehicle. Provides that both of these vehicles are not subject to the bridge formula. Removes provisions limiting to vehicles manufactured before or in the model year of 2014 and first registered in Illinois before January 1, 2015 the applicability of weight limit exceptions for certain 4-axle special hauling vehicles. Effective immediately.
Amends the Regulatory Sunset Act. Makes a technical change in a Section concerning the short title.
Amends the Nurse Practice Act. Removes references to a written collaborative agreement throughout the Act. Provides that an advanced practice nurse's scope of practice includes collaboration and consultation with or referral to a physician or other appropriate health-care professional for patient care needs that exceed the APN's scope of practice, education, or experience. Provides that as part of the professional scope of advanced practice nursing, an advanced practice nurse possesses prescriptive authority appropriate to his or her specialty, scope of practice, education, and experience. Such prescriptive authority shall include the authority to prescribe, select, order, administer, store, accept samples of, and dispense over-the-counter medications, legend drugs, medical gases, certain controlled substances, and other preparations, including botanical and herbal remedies. Amends various other Acts to make related changes. Effective immediately.
Amends the Illinois Clinical Laboratory and Blood Bank Act. Removes the definition of "therapeutic optometrist" and replaces it with a definition of "optometrist". In a provision concerning the examination of specimens, provides that a clinical laboratory shall examine specimens only at the request of, among others, a licensed optometrist (instead of a therapeutic optometrist for diagnostic or therapeutic purposes related to the use of diagnostic topical or therapeutic ocular pharmaceutical agents). Provides that an optometrist licensed in Illinois (instead of a therapeutic optometrist) may include certain information concerning a diagnosis or other matters on a laboratory report form.
Amends the Pertussis Vaccine Act. Provides that parents or guardians and immediate family members of a newborn child in a neonatal intensive care unit shall be offered an opportunity to receive the pertussis vaccine to minimize the chances that the disease will be communicated to the newborn child. Effective immediately.
Amends the Illinois Refrigerated Warehouses Act. Provides that the licensing cycle shall be the same as the State fiscal year. Effective immediately.
Amends the Nursing Home Care Act. Provides that all federal moneys received as a result of expenditures from the Long Term Care Monitor/Receiver Fund and all interest earned on moneys in the Fund shall be deposited into the Fund (rather than all federal moneys received as a result of expenditures from the Fund shall be deposited into the Fund). Provides that, with regard to the Long Term Care Monitor/Receiver Fund, deposits, balances, and expenditures shall be separately maintained for all federal fees, fines, and penalties and all State fees, fines, and penalties paid into the Fund. Provides that this shall include all interest earned and all federal dollars received as a result of expenditures from the Fund. Provides that with the exception of expenditures for monitors and receivers appointed by the courts or by the Department of Public Health under the authority granted in the Act, all authority for transfers or expenditures from the Fund is hereby suspended beginning fiscal year 2014; beginning in fiscal year 2014, expenditures in excess of those for monitors and receivers shall be made after consultation with the Long-Term Care Facility Advisory Board and based on the estimated amount of fines and penalties collected; and any funds transferred or expended in violation of this provision shall be immediately restored. Sets forth provisions concerning the Director of Public Health's plan for the reduction of violations and fines and list of recommended expenditures in excess of the amount needed for monitors and receivers. Provides that the Fund is not subject to sweeps, administrative chargebacks, or any other fiscal or budgetary maneuver that would in any way transfer any amount from the Fund into any other fund of the State. Amends various Acts to make conforming changes. Effective immediately.
Mourns the death of Kamisha Danyette Hodge-Walker of Decatur.
Creates the Advisory Committee on Education Funding to conduct a thorough review of the existing distribution methods and expenditures of education funding and make recommendations to implement an education funding system.