RELATING TO HEALTH; AMENDING THE PUBLIC HEALTH ACT TO ADD COMMUNITY MENTAL HEALTH CENTER TO THE DEFINITION OF HEALTH FACILITY.

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) is amended to read:

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

A. "department" or "division" means the children, youth and families department as to child-care centers and facilities and the department of health as to all other health facilities;

B. "director" means the secretary;

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

D. "health facility" means any public hospital, profit or nonprofit private hospital, general or special hospital, outpatient facility, maternity home or shelter, adult day-care 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 or a health service organization operating as a free-standing hospice or a home health agency. 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 which, by federal regulation, must be licensed by the state to obtain or maintain full or partial, permanent or temporary federal funding. It does not include the offices and treatment rooms of licensed private practitioners; and

E. "secretary" means the secretary of children, youth and families as to child-care centers and facilities and the secretary of health as to all other health facilities."

HB 555

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