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| 1 | AN ACT concerning regulation. | ||||||
| 2 | Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, | ||||||
| 3 | represented in the General Assembly: | ||||||
| 4 | Section 5. The Community Benefits Act is amended by adding | ||||||
| 5 | Section 23 as follows: | ||||||
| 6 | (210 ILCS 76/23 new) | ||||||
| 7 | Sec. 23. Public reports. | ||||||
| 8 | (a) In order to increase transparency and accessibility of | ||||||
| 9 | charity care and financial assistance data, a hospital shall | ||||||
| 10 | make the annual hospital community benefits plan report | ||||||
| 11 | submitted to the Attorney General under Section 20 available | ||||||
| 12 | to the public by publishing the information on the hospital's | ||||||
| 13 | website in the same location where annual reports are posted | ||||||
| 14 | or on a prominent location on the homepage of the hospital's | ||||||
| 15 | website. A hospital is not required to post its audited | ||||||
| 16 | financial statements. Information made available to the public | ||||||
| 17 | shall include, but shall not be limited to, the following: | ||||||
| 18 | (1) The reporting period. | ||||||
| 19 | (2) Charity care costs consistent with the reporting | ||||||
| 20 | requirements in paragraph (3) of subsection (a) of Section | ||||||
| 21 | 20. Charity care costs associated with services provided | ||||||
| 22 | in a hospital's emergency department shall be reported as | ||||||
| 23 | a subset of total charity care costs. | ||||||
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| 1 | (3) Total net patient revenue, reported separately by | ||||||
| 2 | hospital if the reporting health system includes more than | ||||||
| 3 | one hospital. | ||||||
| 4 | (4) Total community benefits spending. If a hospital | ||||||
| 5 | is owned or operated by a health system, total community | ||||||
| 6 | benefits spending may be reported as a health system. | ||||||
| 7 | (5) Data on financial assistance applications | ||||||
| 8 | consistent with the reporting requirements in paragraph | ||||||
| 9 | (3) of subsection (a) of Section 20, including: | ||||||
| 10 | (A) the number of applications submitted to the | ||||||
| 11 | hospital, both complete and incomplete; | ||||||
| 12 | (B) the number of applications approved; and | ||||||
| 13 | (C) the number of applications denied and the 5 | ||||||
| 14 | most frequent reasons for denial. | ||||||
| 15 | (6) To the extent that race, ethnicity, sex, or | ||||||
| 16 | preferred language is collected and available for | ||||||
| 17 | financial assistance applications, the data outlined in | ||||||
| 18 | paragraph (5) shall be reported by race, ethnicity, sex, | ||||||
| 19 | and preferred language. If this data is not provided by | ||||||
| 20 | the patient, the hospital shall indicate this in its | ||||||
| 21 | reports. Public reporting of this information shall begin | ||||||
| 22 | with the community benefit report filed on or after July | ||||||
| 23 | 1, 2022. A hospital that files a report without having a | ||||||
| 24 | full year of demographic data as required by this Act may | ||||||
| 25 | indicate this in its report. | ||||||
| 26 | (b) The Attorney General shall provide notice on the | ||||||
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| 1 | Attorney General's website informing the public that, upon | ||||||
| 2 | request, the Attorney General will provide the annual reports | ||||||
| 3 | filed with the Attorney General under Section 20. The notice | ||||||
| 4 | shall include the contact information to submit a request. | ||||||
| 5 | Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect January | ||||||
| 6 | 1, 2025. | ||||||