Emergency Notice - Illinois Patient Access and Care Optimization Study

The State of Illinois Department of Public Health, Director's Office, awarded a contract valued at $1.248 million to the Mongan Institute Health Policy Research Center at Massachusetts General Hospital to conduct professional research, policy analysis, and consulting services. The contract, designated as an Open Market Emergency Purchase (Reference #B-53490), was awarded on July 28, 2026, with a completion date of October 25, 2026, and performance undertaken in Boston, Massachusetts, with deliverables directed to state offices in Springfield, Illinois. The procurement was conducted pursuant to 30 ILCS 500/20-30 and 44 Ill. Admin. Code 1.2030 in response to statutory requirements under Public Act 104-0470 (20 ILCS 2310/2310-716).

The contracted services require the vendor to develop a comprehensive report addressing patient access to healthcare throughout Illinois, the stability of the state's healthcare delivery system, impacts of federal policy changes, and evidence-based policy recommendations. Deliverables include project management, stakeholder coordination, data collection and analysis, healthcare access assessments, hospital stability evaluations, fiscal impact analyses, policy recommendation development, and submission of a final report to the Governor and General Assembly no later than January 31, 2027. The emergency procurement determination was based on the absence of available active state contracts for these specialized services and a finding that no certified Business Enterprise Program vendors possessed the required qualifications and capacity to meet the compressed statutory deadline.