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(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Revenue Decreases)

Duplicates/Conflicts with/Companion to/Relates to

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

Health Policy Commission

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

House Bill 576 amends Section 27-5-6.1 NMSA 1978 relating to the sole community provider fund. The proposed legislation adds a new section that describes a new funding formula to be used by the counties in determining what their maximum allowable contribution would be for each fiscal year. The bill adds a new definition for eligible county to mean a county that has a sole community provider hospital or designates funds to a hospital located in another county. Population is also defined to mean the most recent population estimate used by the US bureau of census.

Significant Issues

HB576 changes the amount of funds each county can contribute for sole community provider hospitals from the formula now in place. If enacted, it will mean some counties will pay more into their funds and some will pay less. These funds are matched by federal medicaid dollars at a 3:1 ratio and some hospitals will benefit from increased payments and some will not benefit.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

There is no fiscal impact to the state.

ADMINISTRATIVE IMPLICATIONS

There is no administrative impact to the state.

OTHER SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES

The current formula was adopted in FY94 and has not been changed since. Some counties have experienced increases in their populations and some have experienced decreases. Some of the population increase and decrease may or may not be indigent. Thus basing the formula on total population may not address the shifts that have taken place in the indigent populations and may not enable a county to add or subtract monies used for this purpose. Care should be taken to get accurate estimates of the indigent populations in each county in order to better estimate the needs of the sole community provider fund, and the designation of hospitals that would qualify for those monies based on the care they provide to indigents.

MB/njw