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

SPONSOR Ezzell

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

2/8/06

HB 574

SHORT TITLE Dexter & Hagerman-Area School Health Services

SB

ANALYST Earp

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY06

FY07

$100.0

Recurring

General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Department of Health (DOH)

Health Policy Commission (HPC)

Public Education Department (PED)

Higher Education Department (HED)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

House Bill 574 appropriates $100,000 from the general fund to the Board of Regents of Eastern

New Mexico University for the Roswell branch campus to provide school-based health services

to the Dexter, Hagerman and Lake Arthur schools.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The appropriation of $100,000 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

to the general fund. The bill contains the Emergency Clause; therefore, funds could be available

for use in fiscal year 2006.

According to information provided through HED and DOH, this funding is needed for increased

operational support of services to the Dexter, Hagerman, and Lake Arthur Schools. This funding

would include coordination, nurse practitioner salary, supplies, gasoline for a mobile van that

would be used to deliver services, and employment of a full-time assistant/coordinator for at

House Bill 574 – Page

2

least one year, until Medicaid billing for eligible children is sufficient to support the primary care

portion of the program.

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

This proposal was not included among the special program funding requests submitted ENMU to

the Higher Education Department (HED) for review. Consequently, this proposal has not been

included in the HED fiscal year 2007 funding recommendations to the Legislature.

ADMINISTRATIVE IMPLICATIONS

ENMU-Roswell is currently administering programs providing the services to be funded via this

legislation. No significant additional impact is anticipated.

OTHER SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES

Information provided by ENMU Roswell through HED states that an innovative partnership in

Chaves County is beginning to address the huge issues of health care access for children in this

rural part of New Mexico. Through this partnership that includes ENMU-Roswell, Roswell In-

dependent School District, and Pecos Valley Educational Cooperative, some school-based health

services are being provided in Roswell, Dexter, Hagerman, and Lake Arthur. This program pro-

vides services in a coordinated plan and allows allied health students from ENMU-Roswell to

work with professional staff delivering the care. ENMU-Roswell employs a full-time nurse prac-

titioner who provides the primary care for these locations involving access for more than 10,000

children for a total provider time of 16 hours weekly. Total number of children served is ap-

proximate 350 per month.

PED reports that:

• According to the PED school fact sheets, the total percent of students receiving free

and reduced lunch in Dexter is 74.6 percent, Hagerman 83.1 percent and Lake Arthur

85.1 percent, indicating that these are high-poverty areas.

• The three school districts each have a school nurse and share a nurse practitioner who

provides school-based services. Superintendent Steve Starkey of Hagerman stated that

the three districts (Lake Arthur, Dexter and Hagerman) share a nurse practitioner who

comes to each school about one full day a week.

• The schools are Medicaid providers through the regional educational cooperative cen-

ter.

DKE/mt