HB 5083 — PUBLIC BENEFITS-MENTAL HEALTH

*LRB10337713SPS67840b* HB5083 103RDEngrossed GENERALLRB103 ASSEMBLY37713 StateSPS of67840 Illinoisb andAN 2024ACT HB5083concerning Introducedemployment. 2/8/2024, by Rep.

Lilian Jiménez SYNOPSIS AS INTRODUCED:

ILCS 345/1 from Ch.

70, par.

91 ILCS 345/2 ILCS 315/2 from Ch.

48, par.

282 ILCS 315/3 from Ch.

48, par.

283 ILCS 315/3.5 ILCS 315/4 from Ch.

48, par.

284 ILCS 320/3 Amends the Public Employee Disability Act, the Line of Duty Compensation Act, and the Public Safety Employee Benefits Act.

Includes mental health professionals within the scope of the Acts.

Defines "mental health professional" as any person employed and dispatched by a unit of local government to respond to crisis calls received on public emergency service lines instead of or in conjunction with law enforcement.

LRB103 37713 SPS 67840 b A BILL FOR HB5083 LRB103 37713 SPS 67840 b AN ACT concerning employment.

(a) For the purposes of this Section, "eligible employee" means any part-time or full-time State correctional officer or any other full or part-time employee of the Department of Corrections, any full or part-time employee of the Prisoner Review Board, any full or part-time employee of the Department of Human Services working within a penal institution or a State mental health or developmental disabilities facility operated by the Department of Human Services, and any full-time law enforcement officer or full-time firefighter, including a full-time paramedic or a firefighter who performs paramedic duties, who is employed by the State of Illinois, any unit of local government (including any home rule unit), any State supported college or university, or any other public entity granted the power to employ persons for such purposes by law, and any full-time mental health professional employed and dispatched by any unit of local government, including any HB5083 Engrossed - 2 - LRB103 37713 SPS 67840 b home rule unit, to respond to crisis calls received on public emergency service lines instead of or in conjunction with law enforcement.

(b-5) Upon the occurrence of circumstances, directly or indirectly attributable to COVID-19, occurring on or after March 9, 2020 and on or before June 30, 2021 (including the period between December 31, 2020 and the effective date of this amendatory Act of the 101st General Assembly) which would HB5083 Engrossed - 3 - LRB103 37713 SPS 67840 b hinder the physical recovery from an injury of an eligible employee within the one-year period as required under subsection (b), the eligible employee shall be entitled to an extension of no longer than 60 days by which he or she shall continue to be paid by the employing public entity on the same basis as he or she was paid before the injury.

Any person with a disability receiving compensation under the provisions of this Act shall not be entitled to any benefits for which he would HB5083 Engrossed - 4 - LRB103 37713 SPS 67840 b qualify because of his disability under the provisions of the Illinois Pension Code.

This Act does not preempt the concurrent exercise HB5083 Engrossed - 5 - LRB103 37713 SPS 67840 b by home rule units of powers consistent herewith.

"Eligible employee" means any full-time law enforcement HB5083 Engrossed - 6 - LRB103 37713 SPS 67840 b officer, any or full-time firefighter, including a full-time paramedic or a firefighter who performs paramedic duties, who is employed by any unit of local government, including any home rule unit, and any full-time mental health professional employed and dispatched by any unit of local government, including any home rule unit, to respond to crisis calls received on public emergency service lines instead of or in conjunction with law enforcement.

(c) At any time during the period for which continuing compensation is required by this Act, the employing public entity may order at the expense of that entity physical or HB5083 Engrossed - 7 - LRB103 37713 SPS 67840 b medical examinations of the ill person to determine the degree of disability.

1-1-24.) HB5083 Engrossed - 8 - LRB103 37713 SPS 67840 b Section 10.

For the purposes of this Act, "law enforcement officer" or "officer" also means a probation officer, as defined in Section 9b of the Probation and HB5083 Engrossed - 9 - LRB103 37713 SPS 67840 b Probation Officers Act.

(e) "Killed in the line of duty" means losing one's life as a result of injury received in the active performance of duties as a law enforcement officer, civil defense worker, civil air patrol member, paramedic, fireman, mental health professional, or chaplain if the death occurs within one year from the date the injury was received and if that injury arose HB5083 Engrossed - 10 - LRB103 37713 SPS 67840 b from violence or other accidental cause.

(1) the injury is received as a result of a wilful act of violence committed other than by the officer and a relationship exists between the commission of such act and HB5083 Engrossed - 11 - LRB103 37713 SPS 67840 b the officer's performance of his duties as a law enforcement officer, whether or not the injury is received while the officer is on duty as a law enforcement officer;

(f) "Volunteer fireman" means a person having principal employment other than as a fireman, but who is carried on the rolls of a regularly constituted fire department either for the purpose of the prevention or control of fire or the underwater recovery of drowning victims, the members of which are under the jurisdiction of the corporate authorities of a HB5083 Engrossed - 12 - LRB103 37713 SPS 67840 b city, village, incorporated town, or fire protection district, and includes a volunteer member of a fire department organized under the "General Not for Profit Corporation Act", approved July 17, 1943, as now or hereafter amended, which is under contract with any city, village, incorporated town, fire protection district, or persons residing therein, for fire fighting services.

(i) "Paramedic" means an Emergency Medical Technician-Paramedic certified by the Illinois Department of Public Health under the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Systems Act, and all other emergency medical personnel certified by the Illinois Department of Public Health who are members of an organized body or not-for-profit corporation HB5083 Engrossed - 13 - LRB103 37713 SPS 67840 b under the jurisdiction of a city, village, incorporated town, fire protection district or county, that provides emergency medical treatment to persons of a defined geographical area.

HB5083 Engrossed - 14 - LRB103 37713 SPS 67840 b (Source:

$50,000 if such death occurred on or after July 1, 1983 and HB5083 Engrossed - 15 - LRB103 37713 SPS 67840 b before January 1, 1996;

(d) If no beneficiary is designated or if no designated beneficiary survives at the death of the law enforcement HB5083 Engrossed - 16 - LRB103 37713 SPS 67840 b officer, civil defense worker, civil air patrol member, paramedic, fireman, mental health professional, chaplain, or State employee killed in the line of duty, the compensation shall be paid in accordance with a legally binding will left by the law enforcement officer, civil defense worker, civil air patrol member, paramedic, fireman, mental health professional, chaplain, or State employee.

and (4) when there is no surviving spouse, descendant or parent of the decedent, but there are surviving brothers or sisters, or descendants of a brother or sister, who were receiving their principal support from the decedent at his death, the entire sum shall be paid, in equal parts, to the dependent brothers or sisters or dependent HB5083 Engrossed - 17 - LRB103 37713 SPS 67840 b descendant of a brother or sister.

If no SGLI form exists at the time of the Armed Forces HB5083 Engrossed - 18 - LRB103 37713 SPS 67840 b member's death, the compensation shall be paid in accordance with a legally binding will left by the Armed Forces member.

(h) In any case for which benefits have not been paid within 6 months of the claim being filed in accordance with HB5083 Engrossed - 19 - LRB103 37713 SPS 67840 b this Section, which is pending as of the effective date of this amendatory Act of the 96th General Assembly, and in which there are 2 or more beneficiaries, at least one of whom would receive at least a portion of the total benefit regardless of the manner in which the Court of Claims resolves the claim, the Court shall direct the Comptroller to pay the minimum amount of money which the determinate beneficiary would receive together with all interest payment penalties which have accrued on that portion of the award being paid within 30 days of the effective date of this amendatory Act of the 96th General Assembly.

and HB5083 Engrossed - 20 - LRB103 37713 SPS 67840 b (2) a reliable estimate, based upon consultation with the Comptroller, of when the benefit will be paid to the claimant.

A burial benefit of up to a maximum of $20,000 shall be payable to the surviving spouse or estate of a law enforcement officer, mental health HB5083 Engrossed - 21 - LRB103 37713 SPS 67840 b professional, or fireman who is killed in the line of duty after June 30, 2018.

(b) the names and addresses of person or persons designated by the officer, civil defense worker, civil air patrol member, paramedic, fireman, chaplain, mental health professional, State employee, or Armed Forces member to receive the compensation and, if more than one, the percentage or share to be paid to each such person, or if there has been no such designation, the name and address of the personal representative of the estate of the HB5083 Engrossed - 22 - LRB103 37713 SPS 67840 b officer, civil defense worker, civil air patrol member, paramedic, fireman, mental health professional, chaplain, State employee, or Armed Forces member;

For purposes of this Section 4 only, an "eligible late claimant" is a person who would have been eligible, at any time after September 11, 2001, to apply for and receive payment of a claim pursuant to this Act in connection with the death of an Armed Forces member killed in HB5083 Engrossed - 23 - LRB103 37713 SPS 67840 b the line of duty or a fireman killed in the line of duty, but did not receive the award payment because:

(820 ILCS 320/3) HB5083 Engrossed - 24 - LRB103 37713 SPS 67840 b Sec.