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

SPONSOR Cote

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

01/31/07

HB 429

SHORT TITLE Rural Area Telehealth Services

SB

ANALYST Geisler

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY07

FY08

$600.0

Recurring

General

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

Relates to: HB 173, HB 174

Duplicates: SB 180

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Department of Health (DOH)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

House Bill 429, for the Legislative Health And Human Services Committee, would appropriate

$600,000 from the General Fund to the Department of Health (DOH) for expenditure in fiscal

year 2008 to fund a telehealth program providing training, education, case conferencing and

clinical consultation targeted towards childhood diabetes and obesity, developmental disabilities

early intervention, mental health of children under 5 years old, pediatric asthma and other

pediatric specialties. Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of FY08

shall revert to the general fund.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

DOH notes that the executive budget request contained an expansion request of $2 million for

telehealth. However, that request was not recommended in either the executive or Legislative

Finance Committee budget recommendations for DOH in FY08. The Legislative Finance

Committee budget recommendation did include expansion funding of $300,000 for project Echo.

House Bill 429 – Page

2

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

DOH notes that of the 33 counties in the State, 28 are classified as Health Physician Shortage

Area (HPSA) or Moderate HPSA (Maternal and Child Health Title V Block grant, 2006). These

shortages especially affect the quality and frequency of pediatric health care in rural and frontier

areas. Telehealth is an evolving strategy for providing quality healthcare to rural and frontier

residents in their home communities. HB 429 would establish a new telehealth network of

pediatric specialty services, bringing these services to rural areas where pediatric specialists are

not readily available. It would likely coordinate these pediatric specialty services through

existing service providers (primary care centers, private practices, public health offices, and rural

hospitals).

Several different telehealth programs are currently administered by DOH, including Project

ECHO, school-based health center telehealth program, and the Screening, Brief Intervention,

Referral and Treatment Program (SBIRT). The department’s Office of School and Adolescent

Health is equipping 18 school-based health centers (SBHCs) with telehealth equipment through

June 2007. The majority of these SBHC are located in rural, frontier areas of the state. The

telehealth equipment will be used to serve school-aged children, primarily students in grades 6-

12. Services planned include clinical consultation, training, education, and case conferencing.

Telehealth activities in SBHCs will be targeted toward adolescent primary and behavioral health

care assessment and intervention and obesity prevention and intervention. The University of

New Mexico/Health Sciences Center also operates numerous telehealth activities.

DUPLICATION, RELATIONSHIP

HB 429 is duplicated by SB 180. HB 429 relates to HB 173, which would appropriate $150,000

to the Board of Regents of the University of New Mexico in FY08 to fund telehealth consultation

for rural health providers and school-based health centers (SBHC) working to prevent and treat

childhood obesity. HB 174 would appropriate $1.6 million to DOH for the Extension for

Community Healthcare Outcomes (Project ECHO) to provide chronic disease management

services in primary care settings to persons living in rural and underserved communities across

the state.

TECHNICAL ISSUES

DOH notes that HB 429 could be strengthened by clarifying whether the proposed appropriation

would be used for capital costs, operating costs or a combination of both. It also does not specify

whether the funds would be used for a DOH-operated program, contracted program, or a service

provider reimbursement program.

GG/mt