This article was co-published with APM Reports, an investigative and documentaries unit affiliated with American Public Media.

Lawmakers have strengthened Illinois’ longstanding sexual abuse survivors law in an effort to ensure patients receive critical care after sexual assault.

The changes come after APM Reports’ investigation last year revealed for the first time how dozens of hospitals violated that law. Those violations included failing to offer sexual assault testing kits and not contacting child or adult protective services.

The 49-year-old Illinois law requires hospitals to be designated either “treatment” or “transfer” hospitals. The former must provide key services to all rape victims, with some exceptions in pediatric cases. The latter must get state approval to transfer rape victims elsewhere. APM Reports found some hospitals transferred patients as far as 80 minutes away even though a closer hospital could have treated them and collected evidence.

The bill allows the state to fine hospitals that fail to take corrective actions after violating the law and makes it easier for the state to deny hospital transfers that leave patients traveling long distances, enduring long wait times, or without transportation.

The bill also expands access to health care vouchers, which cover medications, exams and testing for sexually transmitted infections after a sexual assault. Previously, only those who showed up at a treatment hospital could get the government-funded vouchers. The new legislation allows survivors to get vouchers at any hospital.

Gov. JB Pritzker’s office declined to say if he would sign the bill. He has until the end of July to do so.

The legislative action caps a year of negotiations among sexual assault survivors and their advocates, hospital industry representatives and state officials.

Sarah Beuning, general counsel for the Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault, said the bill “is an improvement in many areas and a step forward for survivors.” But, she said she would have preferred a hard limit on how far hospitals can transfer patients.

Cheryl Thompson sobbed when she learned Illinois lawmakers passed the revision. The 63-year-old told APM Reports a doctor at her nearest hospital dismissed her rape report, refused to examine her and suggested she travel 80 minutes away for care after she was sexually assaulted last year. 

Thompson received a sexual assault exam eight days later, but it did not reveal male DNA. Public records show the Illinois State Police investigated her report, but no charges were filed.

Since then, Thompson has pressured lawmakers, advocates and industry insiders to change the law. She testified in committee hearings about how her local hospital, and the state’s system meant to protect sexual assault victims, failed her.

“I am just overwhelmed that it’s going to be put into law because of what I went through,” she said in an interview. “It kind of makes it worthwhile that something good is coming out of the horrific stuff that I had to go through, so that someone else that comes behind me is not going to have to go through that same thing.”

David Gross, the government relations lead with the Illinois Health and Hospital Association, said Thompson’s story convinced his organization to agree to the legislative fixes.

“Out of this unfortunate situation has come some real, real improvements to this law and hopefully to the execution of this where a survivor is not facing the same situation she did,” Gross said.

Deaconess Health owns the hospital in Anna, Illinois, where Thompson went for care. In an email, hospital officials said Deaconess will soon send patients to a hospital 50 minutes closer than its current partner hospital in Mount Vernon.

“We recognize there are currently gaps in access to care across the state, and Deaconess Illinois is working to be part of the solution,” said Will Davis, Deaconess’ Illinois region president, in a statement.

Rep. Kelly Cassidy, D-Chicago, who sponsored the bill in the state House, said, “Right now, I think we have a pretty great law, and I’m not done making it better.”

Cassidy said she’d like to increase the reimbursement rate that insurance companies pay hospitals for sexual assault exams, to make it easier for them to comply with the law. “That’s a longer-term project,” she said.