Fiscal impact
reports (FIRs) are prepared by the Legislative
Finance Committee (LFC) for standing finance committees of the NM Legislature. The
LFC does not assume responsibility for the accuracy of these reports if they
are used for other purposes.
Current FIRs (in HTML & Adobe PDF formats) are available on the
NM Legislative Website (legis.state.nm.us). Adobe PDF versions include all attachments,
whereas HTML versions may not.
Previously issued FIRs and attachments may
also be obtained from the LFC in
|
SPONSOR |
Cervantes |
DATE TYPED |
|
HB |
98/aHJC |
||
|
SHORT
TITLE |
Interstate Compact on Communicable Diseases |
SB |
|
||||
|
|
ANALYST |
|
|||||
APPROPRIATION
|
Appropriation
Contained |
Estimated
Additional Impact |
Recurring or
Non-Rec |
Fund Affected |
||
|
FY04 |
FY05 |
FY04 |
FY05 |
||
|
|
|
|
NFI |
|
|
(Parenthesis
( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)
LFC Files
Responses
Received From
Department
of Health (DOH)
SUMMARY
Synopsis of HJC
Amendment
The House Judiciary Committee amends the bill as
follows:
q Changes
the definition of the term “patient” to a person who has voluntarily consented
to detention and treatment or has been ordered by a court pursuant to the
Public Health Act to be detained or treated.
The previous definition defined the term “patient” as eligible as
determined by the laws of the sending state.
q Inserts
language that, in the process of providing medical records of the
patient must comply with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability
Act or other applicable privacy laws.
q Increases
the time for the patient to consent or object to the transfer to an institution
in another state from 14 days to 23 days upon receiving the “notice of
transfer”.
q Provides
for an “evidentiary” hearing on an objection to a transfer.
q Inserts
language that a patient who, in writing, objects to the transfer to an
institution in another state is entitled to an attorney (retained by the
patient or court appointed) upon the request for a court hearing.
Several of the above amendments increase “due
process” protection of the patient.
Synopsis of Original Bill
House
Bill 98 enacts the Interstate Compact on Threatening Communicable Diseases
which would enable the State of
Significant Issues
A
person with a communicable disease may not have the capacity to effectively manage
a course of treatment without significant outside assistance. Currently, these individuals, under court order,
are placed in a local detention center.
These placements are, in most cases, inappropriate. Experience has demonstrated that sometimes
the appropriate placement may be in a neighboring or home state for the
individual involved. However, since
these infected individuals are sometimes under court order and protection,
effecting an appropriate transfer is time consuming and administratively
awkward. HB98 would provide a clear and legally sufficient mechanism to accomplish
this kind of appropriate interstate transfer to ensure the most effective
treatment. HB98 would also serve a purpose in the event of bioterrorism,
when there are multiple cases where individuals must be transported for care
when the in-state resources are saturated.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS
Managing
non-compliant infectious patients is already a responsibility of the DOH. There are no specific fiscal implications to
HB98; rather there would be efficiencies in managing these patients. The costs of transfer will still need to be
absorbed from state and federal funds.
ADMINISTRATIVE IMPLICATIONS
The
existence of this compact would improve DOH’s
administrative efficiency when handling these difficult individual cases.
Through a declared emergency, the Governor could facilitate the interstate
transfers of patients in response to a public health emergency.
OTHER SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES
Placements
in detention facilities are often inappropriate because these facilities
usually lack the training and infrastructure necessary for the delivery of
healthcare and other services needed to assure satisfactory outcomes. Assuring the safety of individuals, detained
for something other than criminal charges, is problematic and may place the
state at risk for litigation.
HB98
would make it easier for the DOH to enter into inter-state compacts that allows
for transfer of patients across state lines so that New Mexicans could enter
specialized and specialty care facilities where the standard of care includes
such things as: negative flow
pressurized rooms, provision of medications, supervised therapy according to
national standards of care, safety precautions and security. In addition, patients at these facilities may
also have opportunities to take part in vocational, occupational, and
behavioral health rehabilitation programs.
This level of care is not always available in
During
a public health emergency due to bioterrorism, DOH
has the potential to rely on a pre-established compact for inter-state transfer
of patients who require specialized care when the resources in
BD/prr:dm:yr