Section 1925.110  Definitions

Terms not defined in this Section shall have the same meaning as in FOIA, as amended from time to time. The following definitions are applicable for purposes of this Part:

"Act" means the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Act [20 ILCS 3960].

"Administrator" means the chief administrative officer of HFSRB, responsible to the HFSRB chairman, and, through the chairman, responsible to HFSRB for the execution of its policies and procedures.

"Agency", "HFSRB", "State Board" or "Board" means the Health Facilities and Services Review Board (Section 3 of the Act).

"Business day" or "working day" means Monday through Friday.  It does not include a federal or State government declared holiday, Saturday, or Sunday.

"Calendar day" or "day" means all days in a month or prescribed time frame.  It includes weekends and federal or State government declared holidays.

"Commercial purpose" means the use of any part of a public record or records, or information derived from public records, in any form for sale, resale, or solicitation or advertisement for sales or services.  For purposes of this definition, requests made by news media and non-profit, scientific, or academic organizations shall not be considered to be made for a "commercial purpose" when the principal purpose of the request is:

to access and disseminate information concerning news and current or passing events;

for articles of opinion or features of interest to the public; or

for the purpose of academic, scientific, or public research or education.  (Section 2(c-10) of FOIA)

"Copying" means the reproduction of any public record by means of any photographic, electronic, mechanical or other process, device or means now known or hereafter developed and available to the Agency.  (Section 2(d) of FOIA)

"Department" means the Illinois Department of Public Health. (Section 3 of the Act)

"Director" means the Director of the Illinois Department of Public Health. (Section 3 of the Act)

"FOIA" means the Freedom of Information Act [5 ILCS 140].

"Freedom of Information Officer" or "FOIA Officer" means an individual or individuals responsible for receiving and responding to requests for public records in the possession of the Agency.

"IAPA" means the Illinois Administrative Procedure Act [5 ILCS 100].

"News media" means a newspaper or other periodical issued at regular intervals whether in print or electronic format, a news service in print or electronic format, a radio station, a television station, a television network, a community antenna television service, or a person or corporation engaged in making news reels or other motion picture news for public showing.  (Section 2(f) of FOIA)

"OMA" means the Open Meetings Act [5 ILCS 120].

"Person" means any individual, corporation, partnership, firm, organization or association, acting individually or as a group.  (Section 2(b) of FOIA)

"Private information" means unique identifiers, including a person's social security number, driver's license number, employee identification number, biometric identifiers, personal financial information, passwords or other access codes, medical records, home or personal telephone numbers, and personal email addresses.  Private information also includes home address and personal license plates, except as otherwise provided by law or when compiled without possibility of attribution to any person. For a public body that is a HIPPA-covered entity, "private information" includes electronic medical records and all information, including demographic information, contained within or extracted from an electronic medical records system operated or maintained by the public body in compliance with State and federal medical privacy laws and regulations, including, but not limited to, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and its regulations (45 CFR Parts 160 and 164).  As used in this subsection, "HIPPA-covered entity" has the meaning given to the term "covered entity" (45 CFR 160.103).  (Section 2(c-5) of FOIA)

"Public Access Counselor" means an attorney in the Attorney General's office whose responsibility is to ensure compliance with FOIA and who is appointed to that office by the Attorney General under Section 7(b) of the Attorney General Act [15 ILCS 205].

"Public body" means all legislative, executive, administrative, or advisory bodies of the State, state universities and colleges, counties, townships, cities, villages, incorporated towns, school districts and all other municipal corporations, boards, bureaus, committees, or commissions of this State, any subsidiary bodies of any of the foregoing including but not limited to committees and subcommittees thereof, and a School Finance Authority created under Article 1E of the School Code [105 ILCS 5].  For purposes of this Part, HFSRB is a public body as defined in FOIA, as amended from time to time.  "Public body" does not include a child death review team or the Illinois Child Death Review Teams Executive Council established under the Child Death Review Team Act, or a regional youth advisory board or the Statewide Youth Advisory Board established under the Department of Children and Family Services Statewide Youth Advisory Board Act. (Section 2(a) of FOIA)

"Public records" means all records, reports, forms, writings, letters, memoranda, books, papers, maps, photographs, microfilms, cards, tapes, recordings, electronic data processing records, electronic communications, recorded information and all other documentary materials pertaining to the transaction of public business, regardless of physical form or characteristics, having been prepared by or for, or having been or being used by, received by, in the possession of, or under the control of the Agency.  (Section 2(c) of FOIA)

"Recurrent requester", as used in Section 3.2 of FOIA, means a person that, in the 12 months immediately preceding the request, has submitted to the Agency, a minimum of 50 requests for records, a minimum of 15 requests for records within a 30-day period, or a minimum of 7 requests for records within a 7-day period. For purposes of this definition, requests made by news media and non-profit, scientific, or academic organizations shall not be considered in calculating the number of requests made in the time periods in this definition when the principal purpose of the requests is to access and disseminate information concerning news and current or passing events, for articles of opinion or features of interest to the public, or for the purpose of academic, scientific, or public research or education. For the purposes of this definition, "request" means a written document (or oral request, if the Agency chooses to honor oral requests) that is submitted to the Agency via personal delivery, mail, telefax, electronic mail, or other means available to the Agency and that identifies the particular public record the requester seeks. One request may identify multiple records to be inspected or copied. (Section 2(g) of FOIA)

"Request", for purposes of the term "recurrent requester" as defined in Section 2(g) of FOIA, means a written document (or oral request, if the public body chooses to honor oral requests) that is submitted to a public body via personal delivery, mail, telefax, electronic mail, or other means available to the public body and that identifies the particular public record the requester seeks.  One request may identify multiple records to be inspected or copied.  (Section 2(h) of FOIA)

"Requester" is any person who has submitted a written request, electronically or on paper, for records to the Agency.

"Unwarranted invasion of personal privacy" means the disclosure of information that is highly personal or objectionable to a reasonable person and in which the subject's right to privacy outweighs any legitimate public interest in obtaining the information.  (Section 7(1)(c) of FOIA)

"Voluminous request" means a request that includes more than 5 individual requests for more than 5 different categories of records or a combination of individual requests that total requests for more than 5 different categories of records in a period of 20 business days; or requires the compilation of more than 500 letter or legal-sized pages of public records unless a single requested record exceeds 500 pages.  "Single request record" may include, but is not limited to, one report, form, e-mail, letter, memorandum, book, map microfilm, tape, or recording.  "Voluminous request" does not include a request made by news media and non-profit, scientific, or academic organizations if the principal purpose of the request is to access and disseminate information concerning news and current or passing events; for articles of opinion of features of interest to the public; or for the purpose of academic, scientific, or public research or education.  For the term "voluminous request", as defined in Section 2(h) of FOIA, "request" means a written document, or oral request, if the public body chooses to honor oral requests, that is submitted to a public body via personal delivery, mail, telefax, electronic mail, or other means available to the public body and that identifies the particular public record or records the requester seeks.  One request may identify multiple individual records to be inspected or copied.

(Source:  Amended at 49 Ill. Reg. 15977, effective December 2, 2025)