HOUSE BILL 342

51st legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - second session, 2014

INTRODUCED BY

Rodolpho "Rudy" S. Martinez

AN ACT

RELATING TO CHILDREN; REVISING DEFINITIONS IN THE PUBLIC HEALTH ACT TO INCLUDE CERTAIN RESIDENTIAL PLACEMENTS FOR CHILDREN; DECLARING AN EMERGENCY.

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

     SECTION 1. Section 24-1-2 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 1973, Chapter 359, Section 2, as amended by Laws 2007, Chapter 325, Section 6 and by Laws 2007, Chapter 326, Section 1) is amended to read:

     "24-1-2. DEFINITIONS.--As used in the Public Health Act:

          A. "department" or "division" means:

                (1) the children, youth and families department [as] or a division within that department, when reference is made to child care centers, residential treatment centers that serve persons up to twenty-one years of age, community mental health centers that serve only persons up to twenty-one years of age, day treatment centers that serve persons up to twenty-one years of age, shelter care homes [and], those outpatient facilities that are also community-based behavioral health facilities serving only persons up to twenty-one years of age and any other program, including a person, place or program that, for a fee, donation or scholarship, accepts custody, care or control, including temporary guardianship, of children and that provides residence for children for a period that exceeds sixty days in a twelve-month period; or  

                (2) the department of health [as] or a division within that department, when reference is made to all other health facilities, unless otherwise designated;

          B. "director" means the secretary;

          C. "person", when used without further qualification, means an individual or any other form of entity recognized by law;

          D. "health facility" means a public hospital, profit or nonprofit private hospital, general or special hospital, outpatient facility, maternity home or shelter, adult daycare facility, nursing home, intermediate care facility, boarding home not under the control of an institution of higher learning, child care center, shelter care home, diagnostic and treatment center, rehabilitation center, infirmary, community mental health center that serves both children and adults or adults only, residential treatment center that serves persons up to twenty-one years of age, community mental health center that serves only persons up to twenty-one years of age [and], day treatment center that serves persons up to twenty-one years of age [or], a health service organization operating as a freestanding hospice or a home health agency and any other program, including a person, place or program that, for a fee, donation or scholarship, accepts custody, care or control, including temporary guardianship, of children and that provides residence for children for a period that exceeds sixty days in a twelve-month period. The designation of these entities as health facilities is only for the purposes of definition in the Public Health Act and does not imply that a free-standing hospice or a home health agency is considered a health facility for the purposes of other provisions of state or federal laws. "Health facility" also includes those facilities that, by federal regulation, must be licensed by the state to obtain or maintain full or partial, permanent or temporary federal funding. [It] "Health facility" does not include the offices and treatment rooms of licensed private practitioners; and

          E. "secretary" means:

                (1) the secretary of children, youth and families [as] when reference is made to child care centers, residential treatment centers that serve persons up to twenty-one years of age, community mental health centers that serve only persons up to twenty-one years of age, day treatment centers that serve persons up to twenty-one years of age, shelter care homes [and], those outpatient facilities that are also community-based behavioral health facilities serving only persons up to twenty-one years of age and any other program, including a person, place or program that, for a fee, donation or scholarship, accepts custody, care or control, including temporary guardianship, of children and that provides residence for children for a period that exceeds sixty days in a twelve-month period; or

                (2) the secretary of health [as] when reference is made to all other health facilities."

     SECTION 2. EMERGENCY.--It is necessary for the public peace, health and safety that this act take effect immediately.

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