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SPONSOR: |
Beam |
DATE TYPED: |
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HB |
HJM 42 |
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SHORT TITLE: |
Medicaid Waiver for Mentally Ill |
SB |
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ANALYST: |
Weber |
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APPROPRIATION
Appropriation
Contained |
Estimated
Additional Impact |
Recurring or
Non-Rec |
Fund Affected |
||
FY03 |
FY04 |
FY03 |
FY04 |
|
|
|
$0.0 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
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(Parenthesis
( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)
Responses
Received From
Human
Services Department
Department
of Health
SUMMARY
Synopsis
of Bill
House
Joint Memorial 42 (HJM 42) requests the Human Services Department (HSD) to lead
a task force to study the feasibility of a Medicaid waiver program for persons
with mental illness.
The memorial requests
a variety of representatives that
include: 1) Department of Health (DOH),
2) Children Youth and Families (CYFD), 3) agencies and professionals providing services to
children and adults with serious mental illness, 4) a statewide alliance for
the mentally ill, 5) an organization of parents with behaviorally different
children, 6) an organization for protection and advocacy of persons with disabilities,
7) adult consumers of mental health services, and 8) family members of adults,
children, or youth with serious mental illness.
These groups are to be included as members of the task
force.
The
task force is to consider the option of a separate mental health waiver or the
option of including appropriate mental health services within a broader waiver
program. In each case, state dollars would
be used to leverage federal dollars so the State can draw federal matching
funds.
HJM
42 requires that the task force, through HSD, report findings and
recommendations to the Legislative Finance Committee and to the interim legislative
Health and Human Services Committee at their respective October 2003 meetings.
Significant
Issues
HJM
42 points out that there is an inadequate, or lack of, community-based services
and support are available to adults with mental illness. This results in neglect, homelessness, unemployment
or institutionalization in hospitals or jails. Children or youth with serious
mental illness drop out of school, are removed from
their biological families and placed in therapeutic foster care, residential
treatment, acute hospitals, or are being incarcerated.
The
funding of Mental Health Services in
A
Medicaid Waiver would provide comprehensive case management services to reduce
the mentally ill from having hospitalizations, improve Supported Employment and
Housing, and ensure that the mentally ill receive sufficient attention to curb
the cycle that currently exists. Services are fragmented across state agencies,
with inadequate coordination and focus on the population with serious mental
illness.
The
estimated numbers of un-served adults and children with serious
mental illness in New Mexico has been reported in the “Behavioral Health Needs
and Gaps in New Mexico” study conducted July 2002 by the Technical Assistance
Collaborative, Inc. This study reports that services are insufficient and that
funding is inadequate in
HJM
42 acknowledges that state-supported services are provided to low-income adults
with mental illness who are not currently eligible for Medicaid. It goes on to
state that a Medicaid waiver could leverage services and enable the state to
draw federal matching funds for those state expenditures. HJM 42 implies that
those New Mexicans currently receiving state-funded mental health services
would somehow become Medicaid eligible. This may be a faulty assumption. As the
Gaps Analysis points out, many New Mexicans will not be Medicaid eligible because
they are just above the income threshold. If these state funds are used to
leverage Medicaid services for those who are Medicaid eligible, then care must
be taken there is not a reduction in funding for non-Medicaid eligible adults.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS
There would likely be
a resultant increase in the general fund requirement for expenses related to
this new Medicaid population.
MW/ls