HOUSE MEMORIAL 83

53rd legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2017

INTRODUCED BY

Cathrynn N. Brown

A MEMORIAL

REQUESTING THAT THE SECRETARY OF HUMAN SERVICES AND THE SECRETARY OF HEALTH WORK WITH THE NEW MEXICO HEALTH CARE ASSOCIATION AND INDIVIDUAL LONG-TERM CARE NURSING FACILITIES TO ADDRESS THE GRAVE CHALLENGES THAT LONG-TERM CARE NURSING FACILITIES ARE FACING WITH REGARD TO REIMBURSEMENT RATES AND THE REGULATORY ENVIRONMENT.

     WHEREAS, long-term care nursing facilities that provide essential care to some of New Mexico's most vulnerable residents are facing a budget crisis statewide; and

     WHEREAS, medicaid daily reimbursement rates for long-term care nursing facilities have been lower than the cost of providing that care for many years and that discrepancy has been steadily increasing; and

     WHEREAS, the latest independent study shows that New Mexico facilities receive only eighty-nine and four-tenths percent of the cost it takes to care for patients receiving long-term care; and

     WHEREAS, many nursing facility residents are able to receive care in these long-term care nursing facilities because they are recipients of medicaid; and

     WHEREAS, medicaid is the largest payer source for long-term care nursing facilities; and

     WHEREAS, the patient population of many rural long-term care nursing facilities is composed of over ninety-five percent medicaid recipients, which makes it virtually impossible for other funding sources to make up for medicaid's reimbursement shortfall; and

     WHEREAS, a funding shortfall on the average of twenty-two dollars forty-six cents ($22.46) per patient per day for a one- hundred-bed facility equates to a loss of about eight hundred twenty thousand dollars ($820,000) for that long-term care nursing facility per year; and

     WHEREAS, long-term care nursing facilities also face great frustration with the eligibility and claims process for medicaid and have expressed huge concerns with cash flow shortfalls due to eligibility and claims processing delays; and

     WHEREAS, long-term care nursing facilities are one of the most regulated industries in the United States, being much more heavily regulated than any other health care providers; and

     WHEREAS, intense regulatory oversight causes long-term care nursing facility costs to be significantly higher than necessary in order to meet the very onerous state and federal requirements; and

     WHEREAS, since October 2014, New Mexico long-term care nursing facilities' regulatory environment has changed drastically; and

     WHEREAS, in 2014, the department of health's issuance of immediate jeopardy citations, whereby the department characterizes conditions at a long-term care nursing facility as presenting an immediate jeopardy to residents, rose one hundred fifty percent from the number of immediate jeopardy citations issued during the previous year; and

     WHEREAS, in 2016, the rate of immediate jeopardy citations issued was fourteen and seven-tenths percent statewide, which represents the highest rate of immediate jeopardy citations in the United States; and

     WHEREAS, the percentage of long-term care nursing facilities with immediate jeopardy citations in 2016 in neighboring states, all which operate under the same federal regulations as New Mexico, were significantly lower: in Colorado, two and three-tenths percent; in Arizona, six and eight-tenths percent; and in Texas, two and three-tenths percent; and

     WHEREAS, in 2016, under the administration of President Barack Obama, the federal centers for medicare and medicaid services issued a directive that doubled all sanctions on long-term care nursing facilities; and

     WHEREAS, fines levied upon long-term care nursing facilities in New Mexico were at six hundred forty-eight thousand dollars ($648,000) before the sanctions were doubled; and

     WHEREAS, many long-term care nursing facilities face closure by the department of health for a regulatory climate that has become extremely overzealous and that does not compare with other health care providers such as hospitals, physicians and clinics;

     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the secretary of human services and the secretary of health be requested to work with the New Mexico health care association and individual long-term care nursing facilities to address the grave challenges that long-term care nursing facilities are facing with regard to reimbursement rates and the regulatory environment to devise solutions to ensure the solvency of New Mexico's long-term care nursing facilities and thereby ensure the availability of the essential care that they provide to vulnerable New Mexicans; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the secretary of human services and the secretary of health be requested to seek federal authority and assistance to better fund and create a friendlier regulatory climate in which these long-term care nursing facilities may operate; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the secretary of human services and the secretary of health be requested to report on the progress of their respective departments' efforts to better fund and create a friendlier regulatory climate in which long-term care nursing facilities may operate statewide to the legislative health and human services committee and the legislative finance committee by November 1, 2017; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be transmitted to the governor, the secretary of human services, the secretary of health, the legislative health and human services committee and the director of the legislative finance committee.

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