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F I S C A L I M P A C T R E P O R T
SPONSOR Miera
ORIGINAL DATE
LAST UPDATED
03/09/07
HM 75
SHORT TITLE Medicaid Substance Abuse Rehab Services
SB
ANALYST Weber
ESTIMATED ADDITIONAL OPERATING BUDGET IMPACT (dollars in thousands)
FY07
FY08
FY09 3 Year
Total Cost
Recurring
or Non-Rec
Fund
Affected
Total
$3,500.0 $3,500.0 Recurring General
$8,500.0 $8,500.0 Recurring Federal
Medicaid
(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)
Duplicates HM 75
SOURCES OF INFORMATION
LFC Files
Responses Received From
Human Services Department (HSD)
SUMMARY
Synopsis of Bill
House Memorial 75 would direct the Human Services Department (HSD) to submit an
amendment to the State Medicaid Plan to the federal centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
(CMS) no later than July 1, 2008, to add a continuum of rehabilitative services to people with
substance abuse problems that is no less than comparable to the continuum of services provided
to people with mental health diagnoses.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS
The Human Services Department reports.
Given the current lengthy process of State Plan Amendment (SPA) approval by CMS, HSD does
not anticipate a significant fiscal impact in FY08 and believes that any expenditures that could
arise from an earlier approval (prior to July 1, 2008) could be managed within the existing
Medicaid budget. Assuming CMS approval within a year, Medicaid would expect a fiscal
impact in FY09 of approximately $3.5 million. With this level of state fund expenditure, there
would be a federal match of approximately $8.5 million, using the current FY07 Federal match
rate.
pg_0002
House Memorial 75 – Page
2
Adding a new Category of Service would require software changes made to the Medicaid
Management Information System and would be handled within the existing maintenance.
SIGNIFICANT ISSUES
HSD continues that the Medicaid benefit package as defined by New Mexico’s Medicaid State
Plan is currently very limited in the area of substance abuse services for adults. The Behavioral
Health Services Division is the primary source of public funds for substance abuse services for
persons age 21 and older, including substance abuse services for Medicaid-eligible adults.
Adding substance abuse services to the benefit package for Medicaid-eligible adults would allow
HSD to maximize Medicaid revenue through increased federal match.
HSD and the New Mexico Interagency Behavioral Health Purchasing Collaborative
(Collaborative) support adding a continuum of community-based substance abuse services to the
State Plan and have been evaluating the best way to accomplish this.
Adding additional services to the State Plan does not require any statutory changes; it does
require that HSD submit a State Plan Amendment to CMS. HSD should not have a problem
meeting the July 1, 2008 deadline proposed in this bill.
MW/mt