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.167837.1
SENATE MEMORIAL 34
48
TH LEGISLATURE
- STATE OF NEW MEXICO -
FIRST SESSION
, 2007
INTRODUCED BY
Linda M. Lopez
FOR THE LEGISLATIVE HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES COMMITTEE
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 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
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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 financial status; and
WHEREAS, uncompensated care is calculated on a hospital-
by-hospital basis and reported according to any definition a
hospital may elect 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 and hospitals, in turn, 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
fifteen members appointed by the executive branch,
including a diverse representation of large and small, rural
and urban hospitals from throughout the state as well as
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.167837.1
community leaders setting policy for indigent or uncompensated
care; and
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.
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