Webinar: Illinois Perinatal Regionalized Health Care Proposed Changes Summary of Responses

August 4, 2026

Memorandum

The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) hosted a webinar for hospitals on August 3 to discuss anticipated proposed regulations that would rewrite the state’s Regionalized Perinatal Healthcare Code.

During the presentation, IDPH provided an overview of the proposed requirements for hospital certification as a perinatal center and maternal care center, as well as information on the new levels of care.

The slides and recording (password: Zx5dkWJb) from the webinar may be reviewed and shared within your organization.

During the webinar, hospitals had an opportunity to ask questions and provide feedback. A summary of the questions addressed during the webinar is below.

Question: Are you able to provide a link to the updated regulations?
Response: Due to the constraints of the regulatory process, IDPH cannot disseminate the updated regulations until approval is received from the State Board of Health.

Question: Can you provide additional information around a timeline?
Response: The next step is for IDPH to bring the proposed levels-of-care changes to the State Board of Health. Following board approval, the full code will be published and open for a 90-day public comment period. Currently, there is no timeline for when the full code will be available for review and comment. IDPH will provide regular updates to IHA, which can be shared with hospitals.

Question: Several questions were submitted asking for clarity around definitions.
Response: The updated regulations cannot be disseminated until the public comment period opens. IDPH understands that numerous questions were raised regarding definitions and can confirm that the proposed rules will include specific, defined criteria for each level of care. The detailed information should address many of the questions related to definitions.

Question: Can you provide additional information around the requirements of respiratory therapists?
Response: Based on concerns and feedback previously shared, IDPH has made adjustments to the original recommendations regarding respiratory therapists. Additional details will be shared when the updated regulations are disseminated for the public comment period.

Question: Administrative Perinatal Centers are often not near where patients need to be transported. Do the updates take transfer proximity into consideration?
Response: The regulation updates do not specifically address proximity. IDPH has identified opportunities to optimize the current regionalized networks, and this will be a focus of future efforts.

Question: Can you provide additional information and rationale regarding the fees required for a perinatal quality review, formerly referred to as a site visit?
Response: Current funding allocated to this work does not provide the level of support needed to implement the proposed levels-of-care changes. The proposed fee structure is as follows:

  • Level 0 hospitals: No fee
  • Level I and Level II hospitals: $3,000 
  • Level III and Level IV hospitals: $5,000

Fees collected will be used to maintain and expand staff capacity to support implementation of the changes.

Question: With the updated levels of care, what level would current Level II with Extended Neonatal Capabilities (Level IIE) be?
Response: These facilities would most likely be designated as Level I or Level II.

Question: Are there opportunities to align processes to avoid duplication with data that is already being collected across the state? 
Response: With these changes, IDPH aims to define standard metrics for hospitals across the state. The goal is to review and update these measures annually.

IDPH will accept pre-rulemaking comments from hospitals and other stakeholders on these rules. To facilitate that process, IHA will collect hospital comments to share with IDPH.

Please send additional comments and questions here by August 13.