Even though St. Margaret’s and the former Illinois Valley Community Hospital are part of the same hospital system now and are less than five miles apart, they need separate licenses to operate. A bill that passed the General Assembly unanimously would change that.
As the law is now, they need separate licenses because they’re in different counties. The new bill would allow a hospital in a county with fewer than 125,000 residents to have a license that covers another hospital in a neighboring county with less than 35,000 residents. Both hospitals must have the same board of directors and same ownership. Having one license instead of two would save money.
St. Rep. Lance Yednock says the bill is a common sense solution to a problem. He was one of the House sponsors. Sue Rezin and Win Stoller were the Senate sponsors.