SB 89 EXPAND HEALTH CARE WORKFORCE

Sen Jerry Ortiz y Pino

Actions: [1] SCC/SHPAC/SFC-SCC [2]germane-SHPAC- DP-SFC

Scheduled: Not Scheduled

  Senate Bill 227135 (SB) appropriates sixty million dollars ($60,000,000) to expand the health care work force.
 

 Senate Bill 227135 (SB )  appropriates sixty million dollars ($60,000,000) from the General Fund (GF) for expenditure in Fiscal Year (FY) 2025, unless otherwise noted, to expand the health care work force as follows:
•	Twenty million dollars ($20,000,000) to the Health Care Authority Department to increase Medicaid reimbursement for health care services;
•	Ten million dollars ($10,000,000) to the Health Care Authority Department to increase participation in the Health Professional Loan Repayment Program;
•	Two million dollars ($2,000,000) to the Children, Youth and Families Department to increase funding for educational stipend programs that receive matching federal funds pursuant to Title IV-E of the federal Social Security Act;
•	Five million dollars ($5,000,000) to the University of New Mexico (UNM) to support new physician resident slots at UNM health sciences center facilities;
•	Three million dollars (43,000,000) to UNM to compensate preceptors who supervise and train students seeking to become health care professionals;
•	Ten million dollars ($10,000,000) to UNM to pay faculty at UNM College of Population Health;
•	Ten million dollars ($10,000,000) to the Higher Education Department (HED) to support the clinical supervision of social work and counseling students and to provide stipends to social work and counseling students who are working at unpaid internships;

Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of FY 2025 for any of the above appropriations reverts to the GF, with the exception of the appropriation to the HED which is non-reverting and is appropriated for FY 2025 and subsequent FYs. 

 Data demonstrates that New Mexico is in need of nearly 10,000 healthcare workers — ranging from physicians to nurses to mental health professionals — in order to "bring the state up to national standards," Searchlight New Mexico
Although there is an ongoing nationwide shortage of nurses and physicians, New Mexico’s large rural population and 50 percent of residents receiving Medicaid are two unique factors in this health care provider crisis.  According to Searchlight New Mexico: "As a result, New Mexicans typically wait months to see a doctor, travel out of state to find one or use hospital emergency rooms for non-urgent medical needs,"  
Not only is it a challenge to recruit new providers; it is also one to retain those in these various health care fields. "Between 2017 and 2021, the state lost 711 primary care providers, reducing the workforce by 30 percent, according to the Committee's report last year. The state also effectively lost more OB-GYNs, psychiatrists, registered nurses, certified nurse-midwives, dentists and licensed midwives than it gained in 2021" noted Searchlight New Mexico.