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F I S C A L I M P A C T R E P O R T

SPONSOR Heaton

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

1/24/06

HB 39

SHORT TITLE UNM & NMSU Cooperative Pharmacy Program

SB

ANALYST Earp

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY06

FY07

$387.6

Recurring

General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

Duplicates Senate Bill 165

Relates to Appropriation in the General Appropriation Act

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Higher Education Department (HED)

Department of Health (DH)

Health Policy Commission (HPC)

Board of Pharmacy (BOP)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

House Bill 39 appropriates $387,000 from the general fund to the Board of Regents of the

University of New Mexico (UNM) to develop a program in collaboration with New Mexico

State University (NMSU) that will provide qualified and interested high school students with

conditional admission to the UNM College of Pharmacy.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The appropriation of $387,600 contained in this bill is a recurring expense to the general fund.

Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of fiscal year 2007 shall revert

House Bill 39 – Page

2

to the general fund. These funds would augment funding received by UNM through the Instruc-

tion and General (I&G) funding formula for operation of the existing pharmacy program.

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

The College of Pharmacy at UNM is the only accredited college of pharmacy in New Mexico,

one of 89 accredited colleges in the United States. The COP, in cooperation with NMSU, pro-

poses to offer a collaborative six-year curriculum leading to a Doctor of Pharmacy degree. The

UNM/NMSU Cooperative Pharmacy program will provide highly qualified high school seniors

from southern New Mexico conditional admission to the COP. Students will complete the sixty

hours of pre-pharmacy coursework at NMSU and then be admitted to the UNM COP.

The UNM Board of Regents have indorsed this proposal as priority number five among 12 pro-

posed special program expansion requests. The UNM request has not been included in the

Higher Education Department recommendations and, consequently, is not included among the

fiscal year 2007 funding recommendations of the LFC or Executive branch.

PERFORMANCE IMPLICATIONS

If this legislation is funded, the New Mexico Higher Education Department (NMHED) requests

that UNM and NMSU submit a joint plan for program evaluation, including specific program

goals and criteria for assessing program effectiveness by no later than October 1, 2006. NMHED

also requests that a program evaluation covering a three-year period be submitted to the LFC and

NMHED by June 30, 2009 reporting the benefits of the program to the students of New Mexico.

ADMINISTRATIVE IMPLICATIONS

UNM would bear the primary administrative responsibility for the proposed program, although

NMSU would also assume responsibilities relative to program coordination.

CONFLICT, DUPLICATION, COMPANIONSHIP, RELATIONSHIP

House Bill 39 and Senate Bill 165 are duplicate measures.

OTHER SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES

According to UNM, the goals of the UNM/NMSU Cooperative Pharmacy Program are to:

•

enhance accessibility of pharmacy education for citizens of southern New Mexico

•

reduce the shortage of pharmacists in southern New Mexico

•

serve the pharmaceutical care need of the underserved in the southern New Mexico re-

gion

•

increase the diversity of the pharmacy profession in southern New Mexico by increasing

the number of pharmacists who are sensitive to the unique needs of a significant Hispanic

population

The Health Policy Commission cites an October 2004 report by the New Mexico Department of

Labor which indicates the number of pharmacists in New Mexico is expected to increase from

1,460 in 2002 to 2,100 in 2012, an increase of 43.8%. Additionally, New Mexico’s population

is expected to age. New Mexico currently ranks 39

th

for the percentage of people age 65 or older

House Bill 39 – Page

3

and is projected to be 16

th

by 2010 and 4

th

by 2030. Given the projections of the increasing need

for pharmacists in New Mexico as well as the increasing age of the general population of New

Mexico, the NMSU & UNM Cooperative Pharmacy Program could potentially provide needed

additional qualified pharmacists to New Mexico. This program could potentially be replicated at

other New Mexico universities and colleges.

DE/mt