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SPONSOR: |
Saavedra |
DATE TYPED: |
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HB |
614/aHCPAC |
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SHORT TITLE: |
Health Care Coverage in Child Care Orders |
SB |
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ANALYST: |
Weber |
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APPROPRIATION
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Appropriation
Contained |
Estimated
Additional Impact |
Recurring or
Non-Rec |
Fund Affected |
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FY03 |
FY04 |
FY03 |
FY04 |
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See Narrative |
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(Parenthesis
( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)
Duplicates: SB 668 with only minor differences that does
not change the intent or potential result.
Responses
Received From
Human
Services Department
SUMMARY
Synopsis of HCPAC Amendment
The House Consumer and Public Affairs Committee
amends on page 6, line 21, and after the period inserts “If the obligor is not
enrolled in a plan, the premiums charged for the child or children of the
obligor shall be those charged for the enrollment of the obligor only.” This language is a clarification and does not
change the intent or potential result of House Bill 614.
Synopsis
of Original Bill
House Bill 614 seeks to amend the Mandatory Medical Support Act (§40.4C NMSA 1978) to bring New Mexico into compliance with the federally mandated requirements for enforcing medical support of children and the use of the National Medical Support Notice required by the Child Support Performance and Incentives Act (CSPIA) now codified as 42 USC Sec. 666(a)(19) and implemented by 45 CFR 303.32.
HB
614 would require the use of a federal form, the National Medical Support
Notice (NMSN) to enforce medical support orders where the non-custodial parent
is to provide dependent medical coverage through an employment related health
insurance plan.
The
NMSN will be used to transfer notice to the employer of provision of health
care coverage for children, and to act as a notice to employers to withhold
mandatory employee contributions for health care coverage for children. HB 614 requires employers to use the NMSN to
transfer notice to the group health plan that children are to be covered, and
requires employers to notify the Human Services Department (HSD) of termination
of effected employees. The group health
plans are to use the NMSN to notify HSD and custodial parent of health care
coverage for children.
Significant Issues
42 USC Sec. 666(a)(19) requires State child support agencies,
under Title IV-D of the Social Security Act, to have a law in place to enforce
health care coverage provisions in a child support order through use of the
National Medical Support Notice. “Such
State laws must be effective no later than the close of the first day of the
first calendar quarter that begins after the close of the first regular session
of the State legislature that begins after
The enactment of HB 614 is necessary to
comply with federal mandates providing a uniform nationwide mechanism for the
enforcement of medical support orders to insure that all children who should be
covered in accordance with a medical support order are in fact covered by the
available group insurance plan of the parent.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS
The NMSN is a Federal mandate. If the state does not adopt the mandate, HSD would be subject to financial penalties for being out of compliance with its Title IV-D State Plan (up to 5% of the Temporary Aid for Needy Families (TANF) grant) and loss of Federal participation (66% of administrative costs) for the Child Support Enforcement Program.
CSED
estimates incurring a one-time programming cost of $150,000 plus initial
mailing/printing costs of $41,760 and annual mailing/printing costs of $32,412
for the multiple-page notice. The
federal government, on a ratio of 66% federal money to 34% state money, matches
Title HSD IV-D costs that are required to comply with the HB 614 provisions.
It
is likely that implementation will have an effect of reducing the number of
children on Medicaid; however, no data is yet available to verify this from
states that have already implemented the NMSN.
ADMINISTRATIVE IMPLICATIONS
If enacted, HB 614 would require additional staff time and computer programming to enforce the new requirements.
MW/prr/njw:yr