2020 New Mexico Statutes
Chapter 27 - Public Assistance
Article 5 - Indigent Hospital and County Health Care
Section 27-5-11 - Qualifying hospital duties and reporting.

A. A qualifying hospital shall accept every indigent patient who seeks health care services from the qualifying hospital.

B. Qualifying hospitals shall:

have written financial assistance policies that are publicized.

D. [C.] Within thirty days of receiving a payment from the safety net care pool, a qualifying hospital shall report the amount of such payment to the county within which it is located.

E. [D.] In addition to the report required in Subsection D of this section, a qualifying hospital shall annually report to the county within which it is located the total costs of health care services provided in the previous calendar year.

History: 1953 Comp., § 13-2-23, enacted by Laws 1965, ch. 234, § 12; 1983, ch. 234, § 4; 1993, ch. 321, § 10; 2003, ch. 413, § 4; 2014, ch. 79, § 12.

The 2014 amendment, effective March 12, 2014, replaced sole community providers with qualifying hospitals to comply with changes in federal regulations; in the catchline, deleted "Hospitals and ambulance services; health care providers; required to file data; sole community provider" and added "Qualifying", and after "duties" added "and reporting"; deleted former Subsection A, which required ambulance services, hospitals and health care providers to file information required by the board to determine the cost of all patients served by the provider and proof that the provider was licensed in New Mexico; relettered former Subsection B as Subsection A; in Subsection A, after "A", deleted "sole community provider" and added "qualifying", after "A qualifying hospital", deleted "requesting or receiving medicaid sole community provider hospital payments", after "qualifying hospital shall", deleted "(1)" for former Paragraph (1) of former Subsection B, after "shall accept", added "every", and after "accept every indigent", deleted "patients and request reimbursement for those patients through the appropriate county indigent fund" and added "patient who seeks health care services from the qualifying hospital"; in former Subsection B, deleted the second sentence in Paragraph (1), which required the county to approve requests that met the county eligibility standards; in former Subsection B, deleted Paragraph (2), which required the sole community provider to confirm the amount of payment authorized by the county; in former Subsection B, deleted Paragraph (3), which required the sole community provider to negotiate with the county the amount of indigent hospital payments anticipated for the following fiscal year; in former Subsection B, deleted Paragraph (4), which required the sole community provider to provide the department the amount of indigent hospital payments anticipated for the following fiscal year; and added Subsections B, D and E.

Compiler's notes. — The bracketed material was inserted by the compiler and is not part of the law.

The governor partially vetoed Laws 2014, ch. 79, § 12. In Subsection B, the governor vetoed Paragraphs (1) through and (3), and vetoed Subsection C, which provided:

"(1) provide financial counseling to patients about their hospital bills;

(2) have written financial assistance policies consistent with this section that are publicized and consistently applied; and

(3) make reasonable efforts to determine whether patients are eligible for financial assistance before initiating collections actions."

"C. No action for collection of claims shall be allowed against an indigent patient with a household income under two hundred percent of the federal poverty level."

To view the chaptered bill in its entirety, see the 2014 session laws on NMOneSource.com.

Temporary provisions. — Laws 2014, ch. 79, § 18 provided that references in law to a sole community provider hospital shall be deemed to be references to a qualifying hospital pursuant to the Indigent Hospital and County Health Care Act, and references in law to a county indigent hospital claims fund shall be deemed to be references to a county health care assistance fund.

The 2003 amendment, effective June 20, 2003, deleted "where required" following "provider is licensed" in Paragraph A(2); deleted "any" at the beginning of Paragraph A(3); and substituted "A" for "Every" at the beginning of Subsection B.

The 1993 amendment, effective on the date that the human services department is notified in writing that the amendment to the state medicaid plan has been approved by the federal health care financing administration, inserted "health care providers" and added "sole community provider hospital duties" to the end in the catchline; designated the existing introductory language as Subsection A, redesignating former Subsections A through C as Paragraphs (1) through (3); in Subsection A, substituted "hospital or health care provider" for "or hospital", inserted "cared for by that health care provider or" in Paragraph (1), and substituted "ambulance service or health care provider" for "or ambulance service" in Paragraph (2); and added Subsection B.

Compiler's notes. — Subsection A of § 22, Laws 1993, ch. 321, provides that §§ 3, 6, 10, 15, 16 and 18 (27-5-3, 27-5-6, 27-5-6.1, 27-5-7.1, 27-5-11 and 27-5-12.2 NMSA 1978) are effective the date that the human services department is notified in writing that the amendment to the state medicaid plan has been approved by the federal health care financing administration. The human services department was advised by letter dated May 20, 1993, that the United States Department of Health and Human Services had approved the amendment of New Mexico's medicaid plan "to add a payment provision for sole community hospitals (SCH), effective July 1, 1993, and a payment provision for indirect medical education (IME) costs incurred by teaching hospitals, effective August 1, 1992". Chapter 321, Laws 1993, contained an emergency clause. The human services department published notice of the approval in the New Mexican on June 21, 1993.