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A MEMORIAL
REQUESTING A STUDY OF UNCOMPENSATED, INDIGENT AND CHARITY
CARE IN NEW MEXICO TO CREATE A SINGLE DEFINITION FROM WHICH
POLICYMAKERS MAY REASONABLY MAKE POLICY DECISIONS.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO:
WHEREAS, state policymakers appropriate funds and make
policy each year to address "uncompensated care", or hospital
care for which taxpayers must pay because it is not covered
by insurance; and
WHEREAS, New Mexico counties provided forty million
seven hundred thousand dollars ($40,700,000) for indigent
medical services in fiscal year 2004; and
WHEREAS, various hospitals and other health care
providers define "uncompensated care" in various ways,
including it as bad debt that will not be collected, as
reduction in revenue such as an underpayment from medicaid or
medicare, discounts to private payers or other voluntary or
involuntary discounts and as charity care or indigent care
for purposes of accounting and for purposes of reporting on
the hospital's and other health care provider's financial
status; and
WHEREAS, uncompensated care is calculated on an
individual facility basis and reported according to any
definition a hospital or other health care provider may elect
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to use; and
WHEREAS, uncompensated care has cost the nation
approximately twenty-six billion nine hundred million dollars
($26,900,000,000) in the twenty-five years ending in 2004;
and
WHEREAS, no uniform, meaningful definition of
uncompensated care is used nationwide or within New Mexico;
and
WHEREAS, the appropriation of an adequate sum for
uncompensated care is critical in a time, such as this one,
when uninsured patients often receive care in the state's
hospital emergency rooms, offices and clinics of other
providers that request appropriations to offset the cost of
providing care to those who cannot or will not pay;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE OF THE
STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the New Mexico health policy
commission be requested to convene a task force; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the task force comprise nine
members appointed by the legislative leadership, including a
diverse representation of large and small, rural and urban
hospitals from throughout the state, federally qualified
health centers and community-based primary care clinics, as
well as community leaders and indigent fund representatives
of county commissioners who are setting policy for indigent
or uncompensated care; and
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BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a member of the house of
representatives and a member of the senate from the 2006
interim legislative health and human services committee be
appointed by the chair and vice chair of that committee to
serve as advisors to the task force and that the task force
and advisors present conclusions, including a working
definition of "uncompensated care", at the November 2007
meeting of the legislative health and human services
committee; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be
transmitted to the governor, the executive director of the New
Mexico health policy commission, the chair and vice chair of
the 2006 interim legislative health and human services
committee, the secretary of human services, the secretary of
health and each county indigent hospital and county health
care board.