SB0212 Summary

• Amends the Medical Practice Act of 1987, Nurse Practice Act, and Physician Assistant Practice Act to prohibit disciplining licensed health care professionals for providing expedited partner therapy in accordance with the Illinois Sexually Transmissible Disease Control Act.

• Defines "expedited partner therapy" as prescribing or furnishing prescription antibiotics to sexual partners of persons clinically diagnosed with a sexually transmissible disease without requiring physical examination of the partners.

• Authorizes health care professionals to provide expedited partner therapy for chlamydia and gonorrhea when partners are unlikely or unable to present for comprehensive health care, limited to exposure within the previous 60 days.

• Requires health care professionals providing expedited partner therapy to provide counseling and written materials covering pregnancy warnings, antibiotic information, allergy warnings, treatment information, abstinence requirements, HIV testing importance, and disease transmission risks.

• Establishes civil and professional liability protections for health care professionals providing expedited partner therapy in good faith without fee or compensation, except for willful and wanton misconduct, and protects pharmacists who refuse to fill such prescriptions based on pharmacy practice standards.