(20 ILCS 3960/5.4)

(Section scheduled to be repealed on December 31, 2029)

Sec. 5.4. Safety Net Impact Statement.

(a) General review criteria shall include a requirement that all health care facilities, with the exception of skilled and intermediate long-term care facilities licensed under the Nursing Home Care Act, provide a Safety Net Impact Statement, which shall be filed with an application for a substantive project or when the application proposes to discontinue a category of service.

(b) For the purposes of this Section, "safety net services" are services provided by health care providers or organizations that deliver health care services to persons with barriers to mainstream health care due to lack of insurance, inability to pay, special needs, ethnic or cultural characteristics, or geographic isolation. Safety net service providers include, but are not limited to, hospitals and private practice physicians that provide charity care, school-based health centers, migrant health clinics, rural health clinics, federally qualified health centers, community health centers, public health departments, and community mental health centers.

(c) As developed by the applicant, a Safety Net Impact Statement shall describe all of the following:

(1) The project's material impact, if any, on essential safety net services in the community, including the impact on racial and health care disparities in the community, to the extent that it is feasible for an applicant to have such knowledge.

(2) The project's impact on the ability of another provider or health care system to cross-subsidize safety net services, if reasonably known to the applicant.

(3) How the discontinuation of a facility or service might impact the remaining safety net providers in a given community, if reasonably known by the applicant.

(d) Safety Net Impact Statements shall also include all of the following:

(1) For the 3 fiscal years prior to the application, a certification describing the amount of charity care provided by the applicant. The amount calculated by hospital applicants shall be in accordance with the reporting requirements for charity care reporting in the Illinois Community Benefits Act. Non-hospital applicants shall report charity care, at cost, in accordance with an appropriate methodology specified by the Board.

(2) For the 3 fiscal years prior to the application, a certification of the amount of care provided to Medicaid patients. Hospital and non-hospital applicants shall provide Medicaid information in a manner consistent with the information reported each year to the State Board regarding "Inpatients and Outpatients Served by Payor Source" and "Inpatient and Outpatient Net Revenue by Payor Source" as required by the Board under Section 13 of this Act and published in the Annual Hospital Profile.

(3) Any information the applicant believes is directly relevant to safety net services, including information regarding teaching, research, and any other service.

(e) The Board staff shall publish a notice, that an application accompanied by a Safety Net Impact Statement has been filed, in a newspaper having general circulation within the area affected by the application. If no newspaper has a general circulation within the county, the Board shall post the notice in 5 conspicuous places within the proposed area.

(f) Any person, community organization, provider, or health system or other entity wishing to comment upon or oppose the application may file a Safety Net Impact Statement Response with the Board, which shall provide additional information concerning a project's impact on safety net services in the community.

(g) Applicants shall be provided an opportunity to submit a reply to any Safety Net Impact Statement Response.

(h) The State Board Staff Report shall include a statement as to whether a Safety Net Impact Statement was filed by the applicant and whether it included information on charity care, the amount of care provided to Medicaid patients, and information on teaching, research, or any other service provided by the applicant directly relevant to safety net services. The report shall also indicate the names of the parties submitting responses and the number of responses and replies, if any, that were filed.

(Source: P.A. 102-4, eff. 4-27-21.)