SENATE BILL 441

56th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2023

INTRODUCED BY

Gerald Ortiz y Pino

 

 

 

 

AN ACT

RELATING TO HEALTH; ADDRESSING BEHAVIORAL HEALTH PROVIDER SHORTAGES IN CERTAIN COMMUNITIES; CREATING A FUND; MAKING AN APPROPRIATION.

 

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

     SECTION 1. [NEW MATERIAL] COMMUNITY BEHAVIORAL HEALTH RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT FUND--CREATED.--

          A. The "community behavioral health resources development fund" is created in the state treasury. The fund consists of appropriations, gifts, grants and donations. Money in the fund at the end of a fiscal year shall not revert to any other fund. The human services department shall administer the fund, and money in the fund shall be used to address behavioral health provider shortages in counties with fewer than one full-time-equivalent psychiatrist per ten thousand people. The secretary of human services shall administer the fund. Disbursements from the fund shall be made by warrant of the secretary of finance and administration pursuant to vouchers signed by the secretary of human services.

          B. The human services department shall develop an application process, selection criteria for applicants, rules for the permissible use of the fund and a system for monitoring the use of the fund.

          C. Money in the fund may be made available to:

                (1) behavioral health services providers who start new practices in communities located in counties with fewer than one full-time-equivalent psychiatrist per ten thousand people and serve clients who are medicaid recipients or eligible for medicaid to cover start-up costs incurred during the first year of operation;

                (2) preceptors who supervise behavioral health provider trainees in psychiatry, psychiatric nursing, psychology, counseling or clinical social work;

                 (3) nonprofit or private behavioral health services provider entities to compensate interns who have graduated from programs in psychiatry, psychiatric

nursing, psychology, counseling or clinical social work but are not yet licensed at a salary equivalent to that of a first-year, licensed provider; and

                (4) nonprofit or private behavioral health entities to compensate:

                     (a) graduate students in psychiatry, psychiatric nursing, psychology, counseling or clinical social work performing internships or field work; and

                     (b) the licensed behavioral health services providers who supervise those graduate students.

          D. No later than November 1, 2023 and annually thereafter, the human services department shall report to the legislative health and human services committee and the legislative finance committee on the effectiveness of the fund and the purposes for which the fund has been used.

     SECTION 2. APPROPRIATION.--Ten million dollars ($10,000,000) is appropriated from the general fund to the community behavioral health resources development fund for expenditure in fiscal year 2024 and subsequent fiscal years for the purposes of the fund. Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of a fiscal year shall not revert to the general fund.

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