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

SPONSOR Feldman

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

1/26/06

HB

SHORT TITLE UNM School of Medicine Combined Degrees

SB 163

ANALYST Earp

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY06

FY07

$800.0

Recurring

General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

Duplicates House Bill 215

Relates to Appropriation in the General Appropriation Act

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Higher Education Department (HED)

Department of Health (DOH)

Health Policy Commission (HPC)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

Senate Bill 163, sponsored by Senator Feldman on behalf of the interim Health and Human Ser-

vices Committee, appropriates $800,000 from the general fund to the Board of Regents of the

University of New Mexico (UNM) for the purpose of expanding enrollment in the School of

Medicine combined bachelor’s degree and medical degree program.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The appropriation of $800,000 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 intent of this appropriation is to augment $669,700 received by UNM in

Senate Bill 163 – Page

2

Chapter 34, Laws of 2005 (Senate Bill 190) to initiate the combined BA/MD program. UNM

requested a total of $1,469,700 for operation of this program as the first priority for Medical

School funding expansion.

The Legislative Finance Committee funding recommendation for fiscal year 2007 has included

the $669,700 as a component of a block-grant appropriation for program expansion. The Execu-

tive also recommends continued funding for the program but through the Special Appropriations

section of House Bill. The Executive recommendation would provide $669,800 to continue fund-

ing for the first-year cohort admitted for fiscal year 2006 plus an additional $757,000 to support

a second cohort, for a total of $1,426,800 in fiscal year 2007. Therefore, approval of this bill

would result in the augmentation of the fiscal year 2007 funding proposed for the combined

BA/MD program.

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

Funding for this program in the amount of $1,400,000 was requested by the UNM Board of Re-

gents as the highest priority expansion item for the Medical School “Instruction and General”

budget. Overall, it is the second ranked priority request for UNM. This request was not included

in the fiscal year 2007 funding recommendation of the Higher Education Department (HED).

See discussion in the Fiscal Implications section above for more information about the LFC and

Executive funding recommendations in this regard.

The funding provided for fiscal year 2006 has been used to initiate a program with recurring and

increasing fiscal implications. Discontinuation of funding for the program for fiscal year 2007

would require UNM to carefully consider whether it could be sustained for the future.

ADMINISTRATIVE IMPLICATIONS

No significant additional administrative impact would result from enactment of this legislation.

CONFLICT, DUPLICATION, COMPANIONSHIP, RELATIONSHIP

Senate Bill 163 and House Bill 215 are duplicate measures.

This bill relates to appropriations in House Bill 2 as described above.

OTHER SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES

University of New Mexico School of Medicine (UNM SOM) is the only school offering an MD

degree in New Mexico, and has adopted, as a part of its mission, the goal of increasing recruit-

ment and retention of physicians choosing rural/frontier practice in New Mexico. UNM SOM

initiatives such as rural residency programs have met with some success, but until recently, the

number of slots for medical students could not be increased because of federal requirements for

lab space per student.

This bill would fund the second year of an 8-year plan to recruit high school seniors from

rural/frontier areas and enroll them in a combined bachelor/MD degree program, while maintain-

ing their close ties to their rural/frontier home community through summer internships through

out their college and medical school years. The program is intended to increase medical school

Senate Bill 163 – Page

3

enrollment by approximately 25 percent and would target enrollment by native New Mexicans to

promote retention of medical students to serve the state. Phase One funding, the undergraduate

phase, would provide scholarships, recruitment activities, course development, tutoring and other

student support. In addition to expanding medical student slots, and recruiting rural and frontier

area students early in their schooling (high school juniors and seniors) for placement in a com-

bined degree program, this program would also help to address the exodus of top high school

students to out- of-state and private colleges by offering a UNM-based path to medical school.

New Mexico has a serious physician shortage in all counties except Bernalillo and Los Alamos.

All counties but these two are designated Health Professional Shortage Areas by the federal gov-

ernment. Within Bernalillo County there is a shortage of physicians in selected specialties. The

Physician Supply in New Mexico study published in May 2003 by the Health Policy Commission

confirmed the shortage in that the state has 169 physicians per 100,000 population compared

with a Health Resources Services Administration recommended number of 240 per 100,000

population.

WHAT WILL BE THE CONSEQUENCES OF NOT ENACTING THIS BILL

It may be difficult to sustain the combined BA/MD program without increasing funding for fiscal

year 2007.

DE/mt