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F I S C A L I M P A C T R E P O R T
SPONSOR McSorley
ORIGINAL DATE
LAST UPDATED
01/29/07
HB
SHORT TITLE Rural Area Telehealth Programs
SB 180
ANALYST Geisler
APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)
Appropriation
Recurring
or Non-Rec
Fund
Affected
FY07
FY08
$600.0
Recurring
General
(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)
Relates to: HB 173, HB 174
Duplicates: HB 429
SOURCES OF INFORMATION
LFC Files
Responses Received From
Department of Health (DOH)
SUMMARY
Synopsis of Bill
Senate Bill 180, for the Legislative Health And Human Services Committee, would appropriate
$600,000 from the General Fund to the Department of Health (DOH) for expenditure in fiscal
year 2008 to fund a telehealth program providing training, education, case conferencing and
clinical consultation targeted towards childhood diabetes and obesity, developmental disabilities
early intervention, mental health of children under 5 years old, pediatric asthma and other
pediatric specialties. Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of FY08
shall revert to the general fund.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS
DOH notes that the executive budget request contained an expansion request of $2 million for
telehealth. However, that request was not recommended in either the executive or Legislative
Finance Committee budget recommendations for DOH in FY08. The Legislative Finance
Committee budget recommendation did include expansion funding of $300,000 for project Echo.
pg_0002
Senate Bill 180 – Page
2
SIGNIFICANT ISSUES
DOH notes that of the 33 counties in the State, 28 are classified as Health Physician Shortage
Area (HPSA) or Moderate HPSA (Maternal and Child Health Title V Block grant, 2006). These
shortages especially affect the quality and frequency of pediatric health care in rural and frontier
areas. Telehealth is an evolving strategy for providing quality healthcare to rural and frontier
residents in their home communities. SB 180 would establish a new telehealth network of
pediatric specialty services, bringing these services to rural areas where pediatric specialists are
not readily available. It would likely coordinate these pediatric specialty services through
existing service providers (primary care centers, private practices, public health offices, and rural
hospitals).
Several different telehealth programs are currently administered by DOH, including Project
ECHO, school-based health center telehealth program, and the Screening, Brief Intervention,
Referral and Treatment Program (SBIRT). The department’s Office of School and Adolescent
Health is equipping 18 school-based health centers (SBHCs) with telehealth equipment through
June 2007. The majority of these SBHC are located in rural, frontier areas of the state. The
telehealth equipment will be used to serve school-aged children, primarily students in grades 6-
12. Services planned include clinical consultation, training, education, and case conferencing.
Telehealth activities in SBHCs will be targeted toward adolescent primary and behavioral health
care assessment and intervention and obesity prevention and intervention. The University of
New Mexico/Health Sciences Center also operates numerous telehealth activities.
DUPLICATION, RELATIONSHIP
SB 180 is duplicated by HB 429. SB 180 relates to HB 173, which would appropriate $150,000
to the Board of Regents of the University of New Mexico in FY08 to fund telehealth consultation
for rural health providers and school-based health centers (SBHC) working to prevent and treat
childhood obesity. HB 174 would appropriate $1.6 million to DOH for the Extension for
Community Healthcare Outcomes (Project ECHO) to provide chronic disease management
services in primary care settings to persons living in rural and underserved communities across
the state.
TECHNICAL ISSUES
DOH notes that SB 180 could be strengthened by clarifying whether the proposed appropriation
would be used for capital costs, operating costs or a combination of both. It also does not specify
whether the funds would be used for a DOH-operated program, contracted program, or a service
provider reimbursement program.
GG/nt