Article archive / March 1, 2014
Originally published: . Volume 5, No. 7. Source pages: 4.
House Bill 152 reorganizes the Departments of Health and Hospitals and Children and Family Services and creates the new Department of Health and Social Services.
The measure lays out the reorganization and consolidation of the powers, duties, functions, and responsibilities of the former departments into the new department, its officers and offices. The law, if approved, will be effective Nov. 1, 2014.
According to the digest, the bill provides that, in accordance with the purposes of the Executive Reorganization Act, the purpose of the Act is to promote economy and efficiency in the operation and management of state functions relative to health and social services, to strengthen the executive capacity of the new department for effective, efficient, and economic administration while improving the quality of the functions performed and the programs and services rendered, and to eliminate duplication of effort within the executive branch of state government.
The proposed law creates offices in the new department that duplicate the offices of the prior departments and provides that each office shall be the successor of the prior office(s) having the same name. Offices of the new department include the executive office of the secretary, the office of management and finance, and (as successors to DHH offices) the office of public health, the office of behavioral health, the office for citizens with developmental disabilities, and the office of aging and adult services, and (as successor to the DCFS office) the office of children and family services.
The law would direct DHH and DCFS secretaries jointly to prepare a workable transition plan for abolition of the two departments and the creation of the new department.
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