Macon Reporter

State Rep. Dan Caulkins (R-Decatur) says his proposed bill's potential will increase the accuracy of patient medical records.

House Bill 1137 was introduced Jan. 12 by Caulkins. It has been assigned to the House Rules Committee. The bill requires that healthcare facilities or healthcare practitioners notify a patient in writing when they alter the patient's record within three business days of the alteration. The bill also requires a healthcare facility or healthcare practitioner to provide an electronic copy of an altered record within seven calendar days of a patient's request.

"We're here today to talk about House Bill 1137. ... This bill is about patient records. It's about the patient. It's about the ability to know what's in your record in real and accurate time. It's also about knowing if there's been any change to your record that you weren't aware of at the time that you were discharged or since the last time you looked at your record," Caulkins said at a Jan. 31 press briefing. "What this bill is not about is changes like a prescription renewal or billing. Things that aren't really substantive. But what we're addressing here is the ability of a patient or their representative to know that the record that they're looking at accurately reflects the diagnosis and the treatment that they received."

"What we hope to accomplish here is to give patients an opportunity or the comfort of knowing what they're seeing in their medical records is the most current and up-to-date version," Caulkins said. "Not all of us, I don't think, go in and check their medical records all the time. We have a procedure or we have a doctor's appointment and we may go check to make sure that the medications that we were prescribed or the procedures that were done were accurately portrayed. What we don't necessarily see is if, down the road, a change is made in that record. So, you could be in Decatur and sent to Springfield with Memorial System and have surgery and have things done and then go back to Decatur. Your record when you are in Springfield may not get back to Decatur in time for the doctor in Decatur to know exactly what was done or what the doctor recommended."

"So, what we wanted to let people know is it within 72 hours of entry into your medical records you are going to be notified, you will be notified most obviously through email, of an entry that's been made that changes something in your medical records," Caulkins said. "It could be a change of medication. It could be a change of diagnosis. It could be a change of a follow-up. They may have told you to come back in a year and then the labs come back and they go 'oh no we want to see you in three months,' well if you're not seeing that in your medical record because you don't think you have to do anything for a year, you may miss that opportunity. You may miss going back in three months to have your condition checked up and that could lead to serious medical consequences. We are going to be working on this bill in the next couple of weeks in the House and I want to emphasize this is a patient-centered effort. What we want to do is make sure that the patient is notified in a timely manner anytime their medical records are changed in a substantial way."

Caulkins was first elected to the Illinois House in 2018 and resides in Decatur. His legislative experience includes serving on the Public Utilities and Prescription Drug Affordability committees.