Welch Applauds Healthcare Heroes, Codifies Health Delivery Innovations as COVID Orders End
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch, D-Westchester, joined healthcare heroes and state leaders to recognize the end of the state and federal COVID emergency declarations, while also continuing effective reforms initiated under the pandemic orders to streamline and expand delivery of care.
“As the COVID emergency orders end, we recognize first and foremost the lives lost during a tragic time in our history. We also applaud the nurses, doctors, hospital staff, emergency responders, and essential workers who faced risks to bring us through difficult times. We’ve come a long way from the days of social distancing and mandatory masking, and that is thanks to our healthcare heroes and the work they did every day,” Welch said. “Many of the innovations we relied on during the emergency to deliver care have become valuable additions to our daily lives. So as we move forward, we are also taking action to maintain access to telehealth options, make sure pharmacies can deliver important vaccines, and help providers continue to care for their patients.”
Welch joined Gov. J.B. Pritzker, Senate President Don Harmon, and other state leaders at the Sangamon County Department of Public Health Thursday to recognize the efforts healthcare workers put in throughout the COVID emergency. Pritzker signed a proclamation recognizing the end of the state and federal orders.
Last month, state Rep. Bob Morgan passed House Bill 559, which provides healthcare workers who have been practicing under temporary emergency licenses during the pandemic with the opportunity to obtain full licensure, and continue practicing while that licensure process is ongoing. The measure also permits continued pharmacy access to flu and COVID-19 testing and vaccination, and maintains insurance coverage of telehealth and virtual mental healthcare.
The bill passed both the House and Senate with bipartisan support, and is now law. Supporters of the bill included the Illinois Health and Hospital Association, the American Nurses Association, the Illinois Retail Merchants Association, the Illinois Pharmacy Association, the Illinois State Medical Society, the National Association of Social Workers and the Health Care Council of Illinois.
“Healthcare workers went above and beyond—both in professionalism and selfless courage—to confront the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic which has upended our society for the last three years,” Morgan said. “As emergency measures will soon expire, this bill codifies some of the best reforms to our healthcare delivery in hospitals, healthcare facilities and pharmacies, and reinforces our over-stretched healthcare workforce with temporary healthcare professionals. Emergency declarations may be expiring, but COVID-19 isn’t gone and our state’s healthcare shortages would have worsened had we failed to act.”
PICTURED: House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch (center) joins state leaders and healthcare workers at the Sangamon County Department of Public Health Thursday to recognize the end of the state and federal COVID emergency orders.