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F I S C A L I M P A C T R E P O R T

SPONSOR A. Lujan

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

1/22/2007

HB 240

SHORT TITLE OUTPATIENT MEDICINE RESEARCH

SB

ANALYST McOlash

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY07

FY08

$489.0

Recurring

General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

Relates to SB 84.

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Health Policy Commission (HPC)

New Mexico Higher Education Department (HED)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

House Bill 240 appropriates $489,000 from the General Fund in FY08 to the Board of Regents

of the University of New Mexico (UNM) for the New Mexico Health Sciences Center (HSC).

The funding is to sustain and improve research involving an outpatient medicine program and a

practice-based research network that provides continuing medical education, clinical research

and outreach programs for rural clinicians and to support retention of clinicians in underserved

areas.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The appropriation of $489,000 contained in this bill is a recurring expense to the General Fund.

Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of FY 2008 shall revert to the

General fund.

House Bill 240 – Page

2

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

House Bill 240 addresses a long standing, difficult problem in rural New Mexico with the short-

ages and availability of health care professionals. Almost every health professional that is li-

censed in New Mexico is in short supply in most rural locations of the state. This includes phy-

sicians, dentists, nurses, dental hygienists, physical therapists, pharmacists, radiological tech-

nologists, dieticians, optometrists, medical technologists, audiologists, occupational therapists,

mental health professionals, social workers, and EMT-Paramedics as well as others. 32 of our 33

counties are considered partial or complete Health Professional Shortage Areas using definitions

of shortage established by the federal government.

This request was not on the list of priority projects submitted by UNM Health Sciences Center to

the New Mexico Higher Education Department for review and was not included in the Depart-

ment’s funding recommendation for FY08.

RELATIONSHIP

HB 240, conceptually, is a duplicate of SB 84. If actual duplication is desired, either HB 240 or

SB 84 must be amended.

BM/mt