HOUSE JOINT MEMORIAL 5

49th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - second session, 2010

INTRODUCED BY

Danice Picraux

A JOINT MEMORIAL

REQUESTING THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, THE HUMAN SERVICES DEPARTMENT, THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO AND OTHERS TO COOPERATE WITH A FEDERALLY QUALIFIED HEALTH CENTER IN SOUTHWESTERN NEW MEXICO TO DESIGN AND IDENTIFY FUNDING FOR A CLINIC-BASED MODEL OF HEALTH CARE DELIVERY AND REIMBURSEMENT.

     WHEREAS, more than one in four New Mexicans receives health insurance through medicaid; and

     WHEREAS, an estimated twenty-three percent of New Mexicans lack health insurance coverage, ranking New Mexico forty-ninth in the nation for the rate of those insured; and

     WHEREAS, New Mexico continues to face serious health care professional shortages, especially in rural areas, and residents of Hidalgo county in southwestern New Mexico have only one source of health care providers, which is a federally qualified health center located in Lordsburg; and

     WHEREAS, health reform at the federal level is focused on extending insurance coverage to many more Americans, but does not address major health care system or reimbursement reform; and

     WHEREAS, the human services department, in recognition of a growing gap between available state revenues and medicaid operating costs, is contemplating dramatic restructuring of the medicaid program; and

     WHEREAS, the human services department's concept for restructuring of the medicaid program does not anticipate discontinuing a reliance on managed care and managed care companies; and

     WHEREAS, other methods of financing medicaid can be contemplated that simultaneously address system reform, including provider accountability, and improved outcomes of care; and

     WHEREAS, an effective and efficient system of health care delivery should address all elements of prevention, diagnosis, treatment and management of disease; and

     WHEREAS, models of health care delivery currently exist in New Mexico that are based on these principles of prevention, diagnosis, treatment and management of disease; however, reimbursement for health care services does not adequately compensate providers for addressing all these necessary components of health care; and

     WHEREAS, at a time when the system of financing and providing health care services, particularly through the medicaid program, is in transition, opportunities have emerged to test alternative methods of financing and delivering such health care services, and these alternative methods should be tested;

     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the department of health, the human services department, the university of New Mexico and others be requested to cooperate with a federally qualified health center in southwestern New Mexico to design and identify funding for a clinic-based model of health care delivery and reimbursement; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the clinic-based model establish provider incentives and risks for the delivery of health care services in a health commons clinic setting with the goal of improving outcomes of care; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the design of the clinic-based model include the entire population of Hidalgo county, regardless of individual sources of insurance coverage and reimbursement; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the clinic-based model be designed to promote clear accountability at the provider and clinic level to improve quality and control costs of health care services; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the resulting clinic-based model be presented to the interim legislative health and human services committee at its November 2010 meeting; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be transmitted to the secretary of health, the secretary of human services, the health sciences center of the university of New Mexico and the executive director of the Hidalgo medical services located in southwestern New Mexico.

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