Prairie State Wire

Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a bill into law this week that he says will improve health care equity for low-income, minority and underserved patients across Illinois.

House Bill 158 will require physicians to complete a bias training program and while Pritzker remains steadfast in his belief that the bill is justice outside of the courtroom, many criticize the sincerity and effectiveness of such bias training programs. 

"We have been speaking to employers about this research for more than a decade, with the message that diversity training is likely the most expensive, and least effective, diversity program around," Frank Dobbin, a professor of sociology at Harvard University said in an article in the Harvard Business Review discussing the ineffectiveness of diversity training. 

Dobbin said despite the cost and the inadequacy of these programs, they still persist with the administrators worried about the "optics" of getting rid of training. 

"[They are] concerned about litigation, unwilling to take more difficult but consequential steps or (are) simply in the thrall of glossy training materials and their purveyors."

Dobbin isn't the only one skeptical of such programs. Scientific American discussed the issue in August, saying that these bias training programs are a form of unconscious prejudice that automatically affect how white Americans treat their black colleagues. 

"The first thing is to realize that racism is not just an individual problem requiring an individual intervention, but a structural and organizational problem that will require a lot of work to change," the article said.

The governor's bill was supported by hospital executives, House Speaker Chris Welch (D- Westchester), Senate President Don Harmon (D-Oak Park) and others. HB 158 is the fourth and last installment of an agenda from the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus.