SENATE JOINT MEMORIAL 9

50th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - second session, 2012

INTRODUCED BY

Linda M. Lopez

FOR THE LEGISLATIVE HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES COMMITTEE

A JOINT MEMORIAL

REQUESTING THE HUMAN SERVICES DEPARTMENT TO IMPLEMENT THE MONEY FOLLOWS THE PERSON IN NEW MEXICO ACT AND TO USE FEDERAL GRANT FUNDS AWARDED TO MOVE ELIGIBLE DISABLED INDIVIDUALS FROM INSTITUTIONAL CARE AND REINTEGRATE THEM INTO THEIR HOMES AND COMMUNITIES IN ORDER TO ENHANCE THEIR QUALITY OF LIFE AND CUT CARE COSTS.

     WHEREAS, many New Mexicans who are living with disabilities are unable to get their basic needs met without assistance to help them accomplish their activities of daily living; and

     WHEREAS, currently, thousands of these individuals are awaiting placement in home- and community-based services, many for as long as eight years; and

     WHEREAS, by providing services under medicaid home- and community-based waivers, the state's medicaid program can provide culturally responsive, appropriate and high-quality long-term services that empower individuals to live independently, productively and with dignity in a safe and healthy environment within their communities; and

     WHEREAS, currently, human services department policy dictates that individuals will not receive services under a home- and community-based waiver unless those individuals are first removed from their homes and communities and placed in nursing facilities; and

     WHEREAS, the Money Follows the Person in New Mexico Act allows institutional care medicaid funds to be used instead for community services following the person into the community without placing a person on a waiver waiting list; and

     WHEREAS, according to a February 2011 legislative finance committee report, the average monthly cost of a nursing home stay in New Mexico was three thousand three hundred sixty-nine dollars seventy-five cents ($3,369.75) in fiscal year 2007; and

     WHEREAS, the per-member per-month expenditure for individuals enrolled in the coordination of long-term services, CoLTS, "c" waiver for home- and community-based services for elderly and disabled individuals was two thousand eighty-five dollars ($2,085) in fiscal year 2010; and

     WHEREAS, data for fiscal year 2011 from the human services department show that the statewide average monthly cost of self-directed home- and community-based waiver services delivered in the privacy of the home is two thousand nine hundred twenty-four dollars sixty-seven cents ($2,924.67); and

     WHEREAS, the Money Follows the Person in New Mexico Act promotes more cost-effective use of long-term services funds and furthers New Mexico's efforts to rebalance the long-term services system away from institutional care and toward community-based services; and

     WHEREAS, the Money Follows the Person in New Mexico Act allows the bias toward institutionalization to be removed by allowing medicaid funds used for an individual's long-term care services to follow the individual from a nursing facility or other institution into the individual's home and community; and

     WHEREAS, the Money Follows the Person in New Mexico Act helps bring everyone, even those who in the past may have had no choice but to live in an institution, into the community where they can become full participants in the activities most people take for granted, such as when to get up, what to eat and when to sleep; and

     WHEREAS, full and effective implementation of the Money Follows the Person in New Mexico Act requires identification of individuals who want community placement; adequate transition assistance, including the use of relocation specialists; accessible and affordable housing; and an expanded personal care work force along with strong consumer input into design, implementation and program evaluation; and

     WHEREAS, the Money Follows the Person in New Mexico Act was to become effective July 2011 and has not yet been implemented by the human services department; and

     WHEREAS, five hundred ninety-five thousand dollars ($595,000) in federal grant funds pursuant to the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was awarded in February 2011 to fund the act in July 2011 and to continue from 2012 to 2016, with twenty-three million seven hundred twenty-four thousand three hundred sixty dollars ($23,724,360) in grant funds explicitly designated to be used to move individuals from nursing facilities to their homes and communities;

     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the human services department be requested to fully implement the Money Follows the Person in New Mexico Act; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the human services department be requested to use federal funds to open new vacancies for individuals awaiting allocation on the long waiting lists for home- and community-based waivers; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the human services department be requested to identify individuals who are currently in nursing facilities and who want to return to their homes in the community; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the human services department be requested to use available funds to provide placement and transition assistance through relocation specialists, to identify accessible and affordable housing in the community, to expand the personal care work force and to allow strong consumer input into the design, implementation and evaluation of its implementation of the Money Follows the Person in New Mexico Act; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be transmitted to the governor and the secretary of human services.

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