Electronic Spring 2023 | Issue 54

State Legislative Update

By: Mark Peysakhovich, IPS Legislative Consultant

Legislative session for the newly sworn in Illinois General Assembly started in mid-January this year. Since then, 2,545 bills have been introduced in the state Senate and 4,014 bills have been introduced in the state House of Representatives. The legislature continues to work through those bills as its scheduled May 19, 2023 adjournment looms ever closer.

Of those, 6,500+ pieces of legislation, hundreds touch on various aspects of behavioral and mental health and health care. The Illinois Psychiatric Society leadership team has invested countless hours working through hundreds of those bills to determine their relevance and priority in relation with IPS’ mission.

In the coming months, we will be closely tracking and taking action on dozens and perhaps hundreds of bills prioritized by IPS.

Among these many important legislative proposals, three key bills stand out at this point in the legislative process. Here is some information on those bills:

IPS supports House Bill 3978, which establishes a state scholarship program for psychiatric residents who commit to staying and practicing in Illinois for a specified amount of time. The bill helps improve patient access to psychiatric services by increasing the number of psychiatrists available to meet the needs of Illinois’ patients.

While this is a great start, we know that additional resources are also needed to expand the pipeline for Illinois psychiatrists by funding educational infrastructure. We will continue to advocate for resources to open up additional residency training slots throughout the state. We are grateful to state Rep. Lakeisha Collins (D-Chicago) for sponsoring this legislation!

More information on HB 3978 can be found here:  https://ilga.gov/legislation/BillStatus.asp?DocTypeID=HB&DocNum=3978&GAID=17&SessionID=112&LegID=149254

IPS supports House Bill 3437, which creates a state Task Force on Prescribing Psychologist Licensing and Oversight. The Task Force would study (1) whether allowing psychologists to prescribe to children and seniors would actually increase access to treatment for underserved areas and populations; and (2) whether prescribing psychologists receive sufficient regulatory oversight, medical supervision, and disciplinary enforcement to fully protect patient safety. Can patients be adequately protected when psychologists, who did not go to medical school and are not trained physicians, are given prescribing privileges? We commend state Rep. William Hauter, (R-Morton) for sponsoring this bill! In addition to being a legislator, Rep. Hauter is a two-time board-certified anesthesiologist and emergency medical doctor and the only physician in the Illinois General Assembly. We look forward to working with him!

More information on HB 3474 can be found here: https://ilga.gov/legislation/billstatus.asp?DocNum=3437&GAID=17&GA=103&DocTypeID=HB&LegID=148604&SessionID=112

IPS opposes Senate Bill 1586 because while clinical psychologists in Illinois can already prescribe to patients 17-65 years of age, this bill would allow them to prescribe to children and seniors, two of the most medically complex patient groups in health care. We believe that the lack of training as well as poor regulatory oversight make this a dangerous idea. Every minute spent debating the merits of psychologist prescribing – an idea opposed even by many psychologists – we lose time and resources we could devote to actually solving the mental health care crisis by expanding Collaborative Care models, telepsychiatry and telehealth care, funding psychiatric residency programs and making continued investments in all forms of quality mental health care along the entire continuum of care. As this bill moves through the legislative process, we may be sending out action alerts allowing you to send an email to your legislators to ask them to vote against this bill. 

More information on SB 1586 can be found here: https://ilga.gov/legislation/billstatus.asp?DocNum=1586&GAID=17&GA=103&DocTypeID=SB&LegID=146342&SessionID=112

Please direct questions and comments about IPS’ legislative issues to Kristen Malloy at kmalloy@ilpsych.org.