ISBA Statehouse Review for the week of May 31

ISBA Director of Legislative Affairs Jim Covington reviews bills in Springfield of interest to ISBA members. This week he covers House Bill 5823 (Health Care Services Lien Act), Senate Bill 3171 (Medical Records of deceased family members) Senate Bill 2840 (Medicaid and estate planning) and House Bill 1263 (eavesdropping). More information on each bill is available below the video.

Health Care Services Lien Act. House Bill 5823 (Thapedi, D-Chicago; Mulroe, D-Chicago) does three things to the Health Care Services Lien Act. (1) Proportionately reduces subrogation claims or other claims of right of reimbursement for medical expenses in the same proportion that the claimant’s recovery is reduced because of comparative fault or uncollectability of the full value of the full claim because of limited liability insurance or from any other cause. (2) Requires a party asserting a subrogation claim or other right of reimbursement to bear the pro rata share of the claimant’s attorney’s fees and litigation expenses. (3) Allows petitions to adjudicate rights under this Act to be served on interested adverse parties by personal service, substitute service, or registered or certified mail. House Bill 5823 exempts any health-care provider's liens and work comp, UIM, and UM cases. This bill may be voted on today by the House Judiciary Committee I and the House.

Medical records of deceased family members. Senate Bill 3171 (Sullivan, D-Rushville; Brady, R-Bloomington-Normal) cleans up the statutes giving family members the ability to get medical records of deceased family members without being forced to open an estate. It does four things. (1) The federal Department of Heath and Human Services has interpreted the 2003 federal Privacy Rule that a patient or their representative may not be charged a “handling” or “retrieval” fee; the only fees that may be charged are reasonable per-page fees. This change makes clear that this protection applies as well to a patient’s personal representative under the recently enacted medical records’ statute at § 8-2001.5. (2) Changes “may” to “must” to remove a conflict with the federal privacy law and Illinois’ current statute. Under the federal Privacy Rule release of medical records is required to be given to a decedent’s executor or administrator or “or other person who has authority to act on behalf of a deceased individual or of the individual’s estate. (3) This change addresses the Privacy Rule requirement that patient records be restricted to patient representatives. It deems the individual’s patient representative when no other patient representative exists, such as an administrator or executor. (4) This requires that a person purporting to be a personal representative seeking records under this statute must certify that to be true under penalty of perjury so that there is some evidence that is true. Passed both chambers.

Medicaid and estate planning. Senate Bill 2840 (Feigenholtz, D-Chicago; Steans, D-Chicago) is supposed to eliminate Illinois’ $2.7 billion Medicaid funding gap. Included in Senate Bill 2840 is a repeal of the compromise of the Medicaid eligibility rules negotiated last fall between the Department of Healthcare and Family Services and the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules. Some of these changes include the following: (1) A home transferred into a trust after the bill becomes law may not be considered homestead property. If the home was transferred into a trust before the bill becomes law, it prevents a person from being eligible for long-term care if the person’s equity interest in this homestead exceeds the minimum home equity as allowed under federal law. (2) People over the age of 65 can no longer participate in a federally created OBRA Pooled Trust unless the beneficiary is a ward of the county public guardian or the State guardian. The bill has an immediate effective date and will therefore take effect when the Governor signs it. House Amendment No. 4 is at the link below, and these provisions may be found starting on page 60. Passed both chambers.

Eavesdropping. House Bill 1263 (Noland, D-Elgin) attempts to reverse the Seventh Circuit’s preliminary injunction in ACLU v. Alvarez that held that a citizen had the First Amendment right to audio-record law enforcement officers doing public duty in a public place. The Senate Judiciary Committee believes that this is unfair to officers, embarrasses them, and endangers their safety. House Bill 1263 expands the exemption to include the right of officers to record at any time “if there is no reasonable expectation of privacy” and notifies the citizen that he or she is being recorded. It is to be voted on in the Senate today.