46th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2003

RELATING TO HEALTH CARE; PROVIDING ADDITIONAL LICENSING REQUIREMENTS FOR CERTAIN HOSPITALS; DECLARING AN EMERGENCY.

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

Section 1. LEGISLATIVE FINDINGS--SPECIAL LICENSING REQUIREMENTS FOR BOUTIQUE HOSPITALS.--

A. The legislature finds that:

(1) acute care general hospitals throughout New Mexico operate emergency departments and provide vital emergency medical services to patients requiring immediate medical care;

(2) federal and state laws require hospitals that operate an emergency department to provide certain emergency services and care to any person, regardless of that person's ability to pay. Accordingly, these hospitals encounter significant financial losses when treating uninsured or underinsured patients;

(3) the ability of a hospital to continue to provide emergency services to New Mexico's insured and uninsured patients is threatened by so-called "boutique hospitals" that offer only services that are profitable and do not offer services that operate at a loss; and

(4) if hospitals that operate emergency departments lose patients to boutique hospitals, emergency departments will cease to be financially viable and will have to close, with disastrous results for the public's health.

B. As used in this section:

(1) "boutique hospital" means a hospital that limits admissions according to medical or surgical specialty, type of disease or medical condition, or a hospital that limits its inpatient hospital services to surgical services or invasive diagnostic and treatment procedures; provided, however, that a "boutique hospital" does not include:

(a) a hospital licensed by the department as a special hospital;

(b) an eleemosynary hospital that does not bill patients for services provided; or

(c) a hospital that has been granted a license prior to January 1, 2003; and

(2) "department" means the department of health.

C. Upon receiving an application for a license by a boutique hospital, the department shall conduct a cost-benefit analysis. The cost-benefit analysis shall:

(1) consider:

(a) the need for the hospital by the state and the local community;

(b) the detrimental effects that the hospital may have on the existing standards of medical care in the local community, including the potential harm to existing acute-care and emergency facilities; and

(c) employment opportunities and other economic benefits that the hospital may provide to the local community;

(2) identify any special requirements that will maximize benefits or minimize costs and that should be included as a condition for licensure; and

(3) be paid for by the applicant.

D. The department shall not issue a license to a boutique hospital unless the hospital agrees to:

(1) continuously maintain and operate an emergency department that provides either basic or comprehensive emergency medical services comparable to those provided by licensed acute-care general hospitals;

(2) participate in the medicaid, medicare and county indigent care programs;

(3) provide emergency services and care to nonpaying patients and low-income reimbursed patients in the same proportion, as determined by the department, as the patients are treated in acute-care general hospitals in the local community; and

(4) comply with any special conditions for licensure identified in the cost-benefit analysis.

E. If a boutique hospital, after licensure, subsequently fails to comply with a condition imposed pursuant to Subsection D of this section, the department shall suspend the license of that hospital until the condition is met.

Section 2. EMERGENCY.--It is necessary for the public peace, health and safety that this act take effect immediately.