Full Text of HB6474 96th General Assembly
HB6474ham001 96TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
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Rep. Mary E. Flowers
Filed: 3/11/2010
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| AMENDMENT TO HOUSE BILL 6474
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| AMENDMENT NO. ______. Amend House Bill 6474 by replacing | 3 |
| everything after the enacting clause with the following:
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| "Section 1. Findings; purpose; text and revisory changes; | 5 |
| validation; additional material. | 6 |
| (a) The Illinois Supreme Court, in Lebron v. Gottlieb | 7 |
| Memorial Hospital , found that the limitations on noneconomic | 8 |
| damages in medical malpractice actions that were created in | 9 |
| Public Act 94-677, contained in Section 2-1706.5 of the Code of | 10 |
| Civil Procedure, violate the separation of powers clause of the | 11 |
| Illinois Constitution. Because Public Act 94-677 contained an | 12 |
| inseverability provision, the Court held the Act to be void in | 13 |
| its entirety. The Court emphasized, however, that "because the | 14 |
| other provisions contained in Public Act 94-677 are deemed | 15 |
| invalid solely on inseverability grounds, the legislature | 16 |
| remains free to reenact any provisions it deems appropriate". | 17 |
| (b) It is the purpose of this Act to reenact certain |
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| provisions of Public Act 94-677 that did not involve | 2 |
| limitations on noneconomic damages in medical malpractice | 3 |
| actions, and to validate certain actions taken in reliance on | 4 |
| those provisions. | 5 |
| (c) This Act reenacts (i) Section 8-1901 of the Code of | 6 |
| Civil Procedure, which relates to admissions of liability; (ii) | 7 |
| the Sorry Works! Pilot Program Act; and (iii) a related Section | 8 |
| of the State Finance Act. This Act does not reenact any other | 9 |
| provisions of Public Act 94-677. | 10 |
| This Act also makes certain changes in the reenacted | 11 |
| provisions: (i) in the Code of Civil Procedure Section, an | 12 |
| applicability provision has been changed to reflect the | 13 |
| reenactment; and (ii) the termination date of the Sorry Works! | 14 |
| Pilot Program has been extended to reflect the reenactment. | 15 |
| In this Act, the base text of the reenacted Sections is set | 16 |
| forth as it existed at the time of the Supreme Court's | 17 |
| decision, including any amendments that occurred after P.A. | 18 |
| 94-677. Striking and underscoring is used only to show the | 19 |
| changes being made to that base text. | 20 |
| (d) All otherwise lawful actions taken in reasonable | 21 |
| reliance on or pursuant
to the Sections reenacted by this Act, | 22 |
| as set forth in Public Act 94-677 or
subsequently amended, by | 23 |
| any officer, employee, agency, or unit of State or
local | 24 |
| government or by any other person or entity, are hereby | 25 |
| validated. | 26 |
| With respect to actions taken in relation to matters |
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| arising under the
Sections reenacted by this Act, a person is | 2 |
| rebuttably presumed to have acted in
reasonable reliance on and | 3 |
| pursuant to the provisions of Public Act 94-677,
as those | 4 |
| provisions had been amended at the time the action was taken. | 5 |
| With respect to their administration of matters arising | 6 |
| under the
Sections reenacted by this Act, officers, employees, | 7 |
| agencies, and units of State and local government shall | 8 |
| continue to
apply the provisions of Public Act 94-677, as those | 9 |
| provisions had been
amended at the relevant time. | 10 |
| Section 5. The State Finance Act is amended by reenacting | 11 |
| Section 5.661 as follows:
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| (30 ILCS 105/5.661)
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| Sec. 5.661. The Sorry Works! Fund.
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| (Source: P.A. 94-677, eff. 8-25-05; 95-331, eff. 8-21-07.) | 15 |
| Section 10. The Code of Civil Procedure is amended by | 16 |
| reenacting and changing Section 8-1901 as follows:
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| (735 ILCS 5/8-1901) (from Ch. 110, par. 8-1901)
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| Sec. 8-1901. Admission of liability - Effect. | 19 |
| (a) The providing of, or payment
for, medical, surgical,
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| hospital, or rehabilitation services, facilities, or equipment | 21 |
| by or on
behalf of any person, or the offer to provide, or pay | 22 |
| for, any one or
more of the foregoing, shall not be construed |
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| as an admission of any
liability by such person or persons. | 2 |
| Testimony, writings, records,
reports or information with | 3 |
| respect to the foregoing shall not be
admissible in evidence as | 4 |
| an admission of any liability in any action of
any kind in any | 5 |
| court or before any commission, administrative agency,
or other | 6 |
| tribunal in this State, except at the instance of the person or
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| persons so making any such provision, payment or offer.
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| (b) Any expression of grief, apology, or explanation | 9 |
| provided by a health care provider, including, but not limited | 10 |
| to, a statement that the health care provider is "sorry" for | 11 |
| the outcome to a patient, the patient's family, or the | 12 |
| patient's legal representative about an inadequate or | 13 |
| unanticipated treatment or care outcome that is provided within | 14 |
| 72 hours of when the provider knew or should have known of the | 15 |
| potential cause of such outcome shall not be admissible as | 16 |
| evidence in any action of any kind in any court or before any | 17 |
| tribunal, board, agency, or person. The disclosure of any such | 18 |
| information, whether proper, or improper, shall not waive or | 19 |
| have any effect upon its confidentiality or inadmissibility. As | 20 |
| used in this Section, a "health care provider" is any hospital, | 21 |
| nursing home or other facility, or employee or agent thereof, a | 22 |
| physician, or other licensed health care professional. Nothing | 23 |
| in this Section precludes the discovery or admissibility of any | 24 |
| other facts regarding the patient's treatment or outcome as | 25 |
| otherwise permitted by law.
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| (c) The changes to this Section made by Public Act 94-677 |
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| and reenacted by this amendatory Act of the 96th 94th General | 2 |
| Assembly apply to causes of action accruing on or after August | 3 |
| 25, 2005, as those changes may be amended from time to time its | 4 |
| effective date . | 5 |
| (Source: P.A. 94-677, eff. 8-25-05.)
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| Section 15. The Sorry Works! Pilot Program Act is amended | 7 |
| by reenacting the heading of Article 4 and Sections 401, 405, | 8 |
| and 410 and by reenacting and changing Section 415 as follows:
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| (710 ILCS 45/Art. 4 heading)
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| ARTICLE 4. SORRY WORKS! PILOT PROGRAM ACT
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| (Source: P.A. 94-677, eff. 8-25-05.) | 12 |
| (710 ILCS 45/401)
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| Sec. 401. Short title. This Article 4 may be cited as the | 14 |
| Sorry Works! Pilot Program Act , and references in this Article | 15 |
| to "this Act" mean this Article.
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| (Source: P.A. 94-677, eff. 8-25-05.) | 17 |
| (710 ILCS 45/405)
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| Sec. 405. Sorry Works! pilot program. The Sorry Works! | 19 |
| pilot program is established. During the first year of the | 20 |
| program's operation, participation in the program shall be open | 21 |
| to one hospital.
Hospitals may participate only with the | 22 |
| approval of the hospital administration and the hospital's |
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| organized medical staff. During the second year of the | 2 |
| program's operation, participation in the program shall be open | 3 |
| to one additional hospital.
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| The first participating hospital selected by the committee | 5 |
| established under Section 410 shall be located in a county with | 6 |
| a population greater than 200,000 that is contiguous with the | 7 |
| Mississippi River. | 8 |
| Under the program, participating hospitals and physicians | 9 |
| shall promptly acknowledge and apologize for mistakes in | 10 |
| patient care and promptly offer fair settlements. | 11 |
| Participating hospitals shall encourage patients and families | 12 |
| to retain their own legal counsel to ensure that their rights | 13 |
| are protected and to help facilitate negotiations for fair | 14 |
| settlements. Participating hospitals shall report to the | 15 |
| committee their total costs for healing art malpractice | 16 |
| verdicts, settlements, and defense litigation for the | 17 |
| preceding 5 years to enable the committee to determine average | 18 |
| costs for that hospital during that period. The committee shall | 19 |
| develop standards and protocols to compare costs for cases | 20 |
| handled by traditional means and cases handled under the Sorry | 21 |
| Works! protocol. | 22 |
| If the committee determines that the total costs of cases | 23 |
| handled under the Sorry Works! protocol by a hospital | 24 |
| participating in the program exceed the total costs that would | 25 |
| have been incurred if the cases had been handled by traditional | 26 |
| means, the hospital may apply for a grant from the Sorry Works! |
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| Fund, a special fund that is created in the State Treasury, for | 2 |
| an amount, as determined by the committee, by which the total | 3 |
| costs exceed the total costs that would have been incurred if | 4 |
| the cases had been handled by traditional means; however, the | 5 |
| total of all grants from the Fund for cases in any single | 6 |
| participating hospital in any year may not exceed the amount in | 7 |
| the Fund or $2,000,000, whichever is less.
All grants shall be | 8 |
| subject to appropriation. Moneys in the Fund shall consist of | 9 |
| funds transferred into the Fund or otherwise made available | 10 |
| from any source.
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| (Source: P.A. 94-677, eff. 8-25-05.) | 12 |
| (710 ILCS 45/410)
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| Sec. 410. Establishment of committee. | 14 |
| (a) A committee is established to develop, oversee, and | 15 |
| implement the Sorry Works! pilot program. The committee shall | 16 |
| have 9 members, each of whom shall be a voting member. Six | 17 |
| members of the committee shall constitute a quorum. The | 18 |
| committee shall be comprised as follows:
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| (1) The President of the Senate, the Minority Leader of | 20 |
| the Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, | 21 |
| and the Minority Leader of the House of Representatives | 22 |
| shall each appoint 2 members. | 23 |
| (2) The Secretary of Financial and Professional | 24 |
| Regulation or his or her designee. | 25 |
| (b) The committee shall establish criteria for the program, |
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| including but not limited to: selection of hospitals, | 2 |
| physicians, and insurers to participate in the program; and | 3 |
| creation of a subcommittee to review cases from hospitals and | 4 |
| determine whether hospitals, physicians, and insurers are | 5 |
| entitled to compensation under the program.
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| (c) The committee shall communicate with hospitals, | 7 |
| physicians, and insurers that are interested in participating | 8 |
| in the program. The committee shall make final decisions as to | 9 |
| which applicants are accepted for the program. | 10 |
| (d) The committee shall report to the Governor and the | 11 |
| General Assembly annually. | 12 |
| (e) The committee shall publish data regarding the program. | 13 |
| (f) Committee members shall receive no compensation for the | 14 |
| performance of their duties as members, but each member shall | 15 |
| be paid necessary expenses while engaged in the performance of | 16 |
| those duties.
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| (Source: P.A. 94-677, eff. 8-25-05.) | 18 |
| (710 ILCS 45/415)
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| Sec. 415. Termination of program. | 20 |
| (a) The program may be terminated at any time if the | 21 |
| committee, by a vote of two-thirds of its members, votes to | 22 |
| terminate the program.
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| (b) If the program is not terminated under subsection (a), | 24 |
| the program shall terminate after its second year of operation | 25 |
| following its reenactment by this amendatory Act of the 96th |
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| General Assembly .
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| (Source: P.A. 94-677, eff. 8-25-05.) | 3 |
| Section 97. Severability. The provisions of this Act are | 4 |
| severable under Section 1.31 of the Statute on Statutes.
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| Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon | 6 |
| becoming law.".
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