SB0048

SENATE BILL 48

51st legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - second session, 2014

INTRODUCED BY

Timothy M. Keller and Emily Kane

AN ACT

RELATING TO PUBLIC HEALTH; ESTABLISHING A HEALTH IMPACT ASSESSMENT PROGRAM IN THE DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENT; REQUIRING THAT CERTAIN CONSTRUCTION OR DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS OBTAIN A CERTIFICATE OF HEALTH IMPACT; PROVIDING FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A HEALTH IMPACT ADVISORY COMMITTEE; PROVIDING FOR RULEMAKING; PROVIDING FOR APPEALS; AMENDING A SECTION OF THE HEALTH INFORMATION SYSTEM ACT TO REQUIRE THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH TO USE ITS HEALTH INFORMATION SYSTEM TO ISSUE COMMUNITY HEALTH INDEXES FOR NEW MEXICO COUNTIES.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO:

SECTION 1. [NEW MATERIAL] SHORT TITLE.--Sections 1 through 6 of this act may be cited as the "Health Impact Assessment Act".

SECTION 2. [NEW MATERIAL] DEFINITIONS.--As used in the Health Impact Assessment Act:

A. "applicant" means an applicant for a certificate of health impact or for a renewal of an existing certificate of health impact;

B. "department" means the department of environment; and

C. "secretary" means the secretary of environment.

SECTION 3. [NEW MATERIAL] HEALTH IMPACT ASSESSMENT PROGRAM--ESTABLISHMENT--ADVISORY COMMITTEE--RULEMAKING.--

A. The secretary shall establish a health impact assessment program in the department to promote healthy communities, eliminate health disparities among communities and protect the human environment. The health impact assessment program shall develop a health impact assessment and a program for issuing certificates of health impact for use statewide pursuant to the provisions of Section 5 of the Health Impact Assessment Act.

B. The secretary shall adopt and promulgate rules to establish:

(1) procedures for requesting, applying for, reviewing, taking public comment on and appealing the department's ruling on issuance of a certificate of health impact;

(2) acceptable health impact standards for purposes of issuing or denying a certificate of health impact;

(3) the use of county health indexes in the health impact assessment procedure;

(4) a procedure for enhanced public notification of and involvement in developing community health awareness and mitigation options; and

(5) an application fee and procedure for conducting health impact assessments.

C. The secretary shall adopt and promulgate rules that establish procedures that ensure that the public, affected governmental agencies and any other person whose health may be affected by a project shall receive notice of each application for issuance, renewal or modification of a certificate. Public notice shall include:

(1) for issuance or modification of a certificate of health impact:

(a) notice by mail to adjacent and nearby landowners; local, state and federal governments; land grant organizations; ditch associations; and Indian nations, tribes and pueblos;

(b) posting notice at a place conspicuous to the public and near the discharge or proposed project site; and

(c) a display advertisement in English and Spanish in a newspaper of general circulation in the location of the discharge or proposed project; provided, however, that the advertisement shall not be displayed solely in the classified or legal advertisement sections; and

(2) for issuance of renewals of certificate of health impact:

(a) notice by mail to the interested public, municipalities, counties, land grant organizations, ditch associations and Indian nations, tribes and pueblos; and

(b) a display advertisement in English and Spanish in a newspaper of general circulation in the location of the discharge; provided, however, that the advertisement shall not be displayed solely in the classified or legal advertisement sections.

D. The secretary shall not make a ruling on any application for a certificate of health impact without opportunity for a public hearing at which all interested persons shall be given a reasonable chance to submit evidence, data, views or arguments, orally or in writing, and to examine witnesses testifying at the hearing. The hearing shall be recorded. Any person submitting evidence, data, views or arguments shall be subject to examination at the hearing.

E. Certificates of health impact shall be issued for fixed terms not to exceed five years. For new projects, the term of the certificate of health impact shall commence on the date the project begins.

F. A person that is adversely affected by a project that has received a certificate of health impact may file a petition for review before the department in accordance with the Administrative Procedures Act. The petition shall:

(1) be made in writing to the department within thirty days from the date notice is given of the department's action;

(2) include a statement of the issues to be raised and the relief sought; and

(3) be provided to all other persons submitting evidence, data, views or arguments in the proceeding before the department.

SECTION 4. [NEW MATERIAL] HEALTH IMPACT ASSESSMENT PROGRAM ADVISORY COMMITTEE--CREATION--DUTIES--APPOINTMENT--COMPENSATION.--

A. The secretary shall create a five-member health impact assessment program advisory committee. The health impact assessment program advisory committee shall review applications for certificates of health impact and shall provide opinions to the secretary as to whether a project conforms to the health impact standards established pursuant to department rules.

B. The secretary shall appoint five members to the committee who shall have specialized knowledge of health impact assessment and environmental impact analysis.

C. Members of the health impact assessment program advisory committee shall be subject to applicable provisions of the Governmental Conduct Act and shall not have any direct or indirect affiliation with an industry subject to regulation pursuant to the Environmental Improvement Act.

D. Members of the committee shall receive per diem and mileage as provided for nonsalaried public officers in the Per Diem and Mileage Act and shall receive no other compensation, perquisite or allowance.

SECTION 5. [NEW MATERIAL] CERTIFICATE OF HEALTH IMPACT REQUIRED--EXCEPTIONS.--

A. Except as provided in Subsection E of this section, and in addition to other environmental assessments required by state and federal law, a person shall not begin construction or development of a project that requires an environmental assessment or an environmental impact statement for effects on air, water and soil quality pursuant to another state or federal law unless the person receives a certificate of health impact or a waiver pursuant to the provisions of the Health Impact Assessment Act.

B. A person who seeks to begin construction or development of a project that requires an environmental assessment or an environmental impact statement shall apply to the department for a certificate of health impact authorizing the project.

C. Within ninety days of receiving an application pursuant to Subsection B of this section, the department shall issue a health impact assessment relating to the area within a one-mile radius of a proposed project. A health impact assessment shall describe the projected outcome of the project in terms of the effect on county health outcome indicators listed in the county health index for that county created pursuant to Subsection E of Section 24-14A-3 NMSA 1978.

D. The department shall not issue a certificate of health impact to a project unless the health impact assessment conforms to the health impact standards established pursuant to department rules.

E. This section does not apply to a project that is identified by the secretary as a project that is:

(1) in response to an emergency declared by the governor;

(2) a remediation project; or

(3) for the treatment or disposal of wastewater or sewage sludge.

SECTION 6. [NEW MATERIAL] DENIAL, MODIFICATION OR TERMINATION OF CERTIFICATE OF HEALTH IMPACT--CONDITIONAL CERTIFICATION--APPEALS.--

A. The department shall deny any application for certification of health impact if:

(1) the project at issue in the application would not meet the health impact standards established pursuant to department rules;

(2) the applicant has failed to supply the information required by department rules in making an application; or

(3) the applicant has, within the ten years immediately preceding the date of submission of the application for certificate of health impact:

(a) knowingly misrepresented a material fact in an application for a certificate of health impact;

(b) refused or failed to disclose any information required pursuant to department rules;

(d) been convicted of a felony in any court for any crime defined by state or federal law as being a restraint of trade, price-fixing, bribery or fraud;

(e) exhibited a history of willful disregard for environmental laws of any state or the United States; or

(f) had an environmental permit revoked or permanently suspended for cause under any environmental laws of any state or the United States.

B. The department may terminate a certificate of health impact prior to its date of expiration for any of the following causes:

(1) violation of any condition of the certificate of health impact;

(2) obtaining the certificate of health impact by misrepresentation or failure to disclose fully all relevant facts in the project application;

(3) violation of any applicable department rules; or

(4) a change in any condition that may have an impact in any indicators of the county health index for the county in which the project is located.

C. The secretary may adopt and promulgate rules to impose reasonable conditions upon projects and issue conditional certificates of health impact to monitor the projects' conformance to the health impact standards established pursuant to department rules. A conditional certificate of health impact shall indicate the conditions to which a project must conform.

D. The secretary may modify a certificate of health impact in order to ensure that a project conforms to the health impact standards established pursuant to department rules.

E. If the department denies, modifies or terminates a certificate of health impact or grants a certificate of health impact subject to condition, the department shall notify the applicant by certified mail of the action taken and the reasons for the action.

F. A person whose certificate of health impact has been denied, issued on a conditional basis, modified or terminated may appeal the department's ruling by filing a request in accordance with department rules for an adjudicatory hearing pursuant to the Administrative Procedures Act.

SECTION 7. Section 24-14A-3 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 1989, Chapter 29, Section 3, as amended) is amended to read:

"24-14A-3. HEALTH INFORMATION SYSTEM--CREATION--DUTIES OF DEPARTMENT--COUNTY HEALTH INDEXES.--

A. The "health information system" is created for the purpose of assisting the department, legislature and other agencies and organizations in the state's efforts in collecting, analyzing and disseminating health information to assist:

(1) in the performance of health planning and policymaking functions, including identifying personnel, facility, education and other resource needs and allocating financial, personnel and other resources where appropriate;

(2) consumers in making informed decisions regarding health care; and

(3) in administering, monitoring and evaluating a statewide health plan.

B. In carrying out its powers and duties pursuant to the Health Information System Act, the department shall not duplicate databases that exist in the public sector or databases in the private sector to which it has electronic access. Every governmental entity shall provide the department with access to its health-related data as needed by the department. The department shall collect data from data sources in the most cost-effective and efficient manner.

C. The department shall establish, operate and maintain the health information system.

D. In establishing, operating and maintaining the health information system, the department shall:

(1) obtain information on the following health factors:

(a) mortality and natality, including accidental causes of death;

(b) morbidity;

(d) disability;

(e) health system costs, availability, utilization and revenues;

(f) environmental factors;

(g) health personnel;

(h) demographic factors;

(i) social, cultural and economic conditions affecting health, including language preference;

(j) family status;

(k) medical and practice outcomes as measured by nationally accepted standards and quality of care; and

(l) participation in clinical research trials;

(2) give the highest priority in data gathering to information needed to implement and monitor progress toward achievement of the state health policy, including determining where additional health resources such as personnel, programs and facilities are most needed, what those additional resources should be and how existing resources should be reallocated;

(3) standardize collection and specific methods of measurement across databases and use scientific sampling or complete enumeration for collecting and reporting health information;

(4) take adequate measures to provide health information system security for all health data acquired under the Health Information System Act and protect individual patient and provider confidentiality. The right to privacy for the individual shall be a major consideration in the collection and analysis of health data and shall be protected in the reporting of results;

(5) adopt and promulgate rules necessary to establish and administer the provisions of the Health Information System Act, including an appeals process for data sources and procedures to protect data source proprietary information from public disclosure;

(6) establish definitions, formats and other common information standards for core health data elements of the health information system in order to provide an integrated financial, statistical and clinical health information system, including a geographic information system, that allows data sharing and linking across databases maintained by data sources and federal, state and local public agencies;

(7) develop and maintain health and health- related data inventories and technical documentation on data holdings in the public and private sectors;

(8) collect, analyze and make available health data to support preventive health care practices and to facilitate the establishment of appropriate benchmark data to measure performance improvements over time;

(9) establish and maintain a systematic approach to the collection and storage of health data for longitudinal, demographic and policy impact studies;

(10) use expert system-based protocols to identify individual and population health risk profiles and to assist in the delivery of primary and preventive health care services;

(11) collect health data sufficient for consumers to be able to evaluate health care services, plans, providers and payers and to make informed decisions regarding quality, cost and outcome of care across the spectrum of health care services, providers and payers;

(12) collect comprehensive information on major capital expenditures for facilities, equipment by type and by data source and significant facility capacity reductions; provided that for the purposes of this paragraph and Section 24-14A-5 NMSA 1978, "major capital expenditure" means purchases of at least one million dollars ($1,000,000) for construction or renovation of facilities and at least five hundred thousand dollars ($500,000) for purchase or lease of equipment, and "significant facility capacity reductions" means those reductions in facility capacities as defined by the department;

(13) serve as a health information clearinghouse, including facilitating private and public collaborative, coordinated data collection and sharing and access to appropriate data and information, maintaining patient and client confidentiality in accordance with state and federal requirements;

(14) collect data in the most cost-efficient and effective method feasible and adopt rules that place a limit on the maximum amount of unreimbursed costs that a data source can incur in any year for the purposes of complying with the data requirements of the Health Information System Act; and

(15) identify disparities in health care access and quality by aggregating the information collected pursuant to Paragraph (1) of this subsection by population subgroups to include race, ethnicity, gender and age.

E. The department shall develop and publish a county health index for each county. The index shall be a cumulative evaluation of the health of the county using county health outcome indicators that are based on county rates of disease and premature death and that ranks communities according to the average outcomes for the entire state. The department shall update the index every five years. The index shall take into consideration the following factors:

(1) primary indicators of the vulnerability of the county to health effects from sources of air, water or soil contamination that include:

(a) total age-adjusted mortality;

(b) total age-adjusted emergency room visits;

(d) the number of hospital admissions related to asthma;

(e) the prevalence of asthma in children who are fourteen years of age or younger; and

(f) the infant mortality rate;

(2) secondary indicators of the vulnerability of the county to health effects from sources of air, water or soil contamination that include:

(a) the morbidity rate related to age-adjusted noncongenital cardiovascular disease and stroke;

(b) the total number of age-adjusted heart attack hospitalizations;

(d) the total number of bronchitis and bronchitis-related hospitalizations of children who are fourteen years of age or younger and of adults who are sixty-five years of age and older; and

(3) other health indicators in the county that include:

(a) other health outcome indicators determined by the secretary to be relevant to a county's vulnerability to pollutants; and

(b) environmental indicators, including air and water quality data."

- 16 -