HOUSE BILL 543

49th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2009

INTRODUCED BY

Danice Picraux

AN ACT

RELATING TO HEALTH CARE; ENACTING A NEW SECTION OF THE HEALTH INFORMATION SYSTEM ACT; DIRECTING THE NEW MEXICO HEALTH POLICY COMMISSION TO DEVELOP, IMPLEMENT AND PUBLISH AN ANNUAL STANDARDIZED REPORT ON SOLE COMMUNITY PROVIDER FUND SPENDING AND COSTS.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO:

     Section 1. A new section of the Health Information System Act is enacted to read:

     "[NEW MATERIAL] SOLE COMMUNITY PROVIDER FUND ANNUAL STANDARDIZED REPORT.-- 

          A. By November 1 of each year, the commission shall develop, implement and publish an annual standardized report on sole community provider fund spending and costs and report its findings to the legislative health and human services committee. The sole community provider report may be a separate report or may be included in the indigent health care report required pursuant to Section 27-5-5.1 NMSA 1978.

          B. The annual standardized report on sole community provider fund spending and costs shall include the following aggregate information regarding the preceding fiscal year:

                (1) how federal matching funds are used;

                (2) how county indigent funds are used;

                (3) the percentage of funds that are used for direct medical services; and

                (4) whether funding and expenditure of funds are in compliance with federal law and regulation.

          C. The annual standardized report on sole community provider fund spending and costs may include the following information from the preceding fiscal year on a provider hospital-by-hospital basis:

                (1) the hospital's operating costs, which are the expenses required to deliver health care, including interest, depreciation, amortization and overhead, exclusive of bad debt;

                (2) measures that the hospital uses to promote efficiency and economy;

                (3) the hospital's gross patient charges, which are the nondiscounted amounts the hospital requires that all patients be charged for care;

                (4) the hospital's cost-to-charge ratio, which is derived by dividing total operating costs, exclusive of bad debt at cost, by gross patient charges;

                (5) the actual cost of uncompensated care;

                (6) bad debt that the hospital incurred, which consists of accounts written off on a gross charge basis for services for which payment was anticipated but not received;

                (7) charity care or indigent care costs, which is health care services provided to patients who are not able to pay and from whom the hospital anticipates no payment;

                (8) the total number of indigent patients served by the hospital;

                (9) the total number of encounters with indigent patients by the hospital; and

                (10) the total shortfall of actual costs over payments received from medicaid, medicare or other health care coverage that does not cover all of the costs associated with the hospital's service to all patients."

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