SENATE BILL 292

52nd legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - second session, 2016

INTRODUCED BY

Gerald Ortiz y Pino

AN ACT

RELATING TO HEALTH; ENACTING A NEW SECTION OF THE PUBLIC ASSISTANCE ACT TO REQUIRE THE SECRETARY OF HUMAN SERVICES TO PROVIDE FOR A SINGLE, STATEWIDE NURSE ADVICE LINE FOR MEDICAID RECIPIENTS; ESTABLISHING AN ADMINISTRATIVE FEE TO FUND MEDICAID NURSE ADVICE SERVICES; ESTABLISHING THE MEDICAID NURSE ADVICE FUND; MAKING AN APPROPRIATION.

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

     SECTION 1. A new section of the Public Assistance Act is enacted to read:

     "[NEW MATERIAL] NURSE ADVICE LINE--INCREASING ACCESS TO SERVICES--ADMINISTRATIVE FEE--MEDICAID NURSE ADVICE FUND--CREATION.--

          A. By October 1, 2016, the secretary shall:

                (1) provide for a single, statewide nurse advice line based in New Mexico to provide nurse advice services for medicaid recipients. The nurse advice line services shall be offered twenty-four hours a day to reduce emergency department and overall hospital costs for medicaid recipients; and

                (2) impose an annual fee of seven hundred fifty thousand dollars ($750,000), to be divided equally among medicaid centennial care managed care organizations, to cover the costs of providing nurse advice line services to medicaid recipients pursuant to this section.

          B. The "medicaid nurse advice fund" is created in the state treasury. The fund is composed of fees collected pursuant to Paragraph (2) of Subsection A of this section and money earned from investment of the fund and otherwise accruing to the fund. Money in the fund is appropriated to the human services department for the provision of nurse advice line services to medicaid recipients in accordance with the provisions of Subsection A of this section. Balances remaining in the fund at the end of a fiscal year shall not revert to the general fund. The human services department shall administer the fund, and money from the fund may be drawn only on warrants signed by the secretary of finance and administration pursuant to vouchers signed by the secretary of human services or the secretary of human services' authorized representative."

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