New Mexico Statutes 24A-1-7. Legislative findings; definitions; licensing requirements for certain hospitals
A. The legislature finds that:
Terms Used In New Mexico Statutes 24A-1-7
- Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
(1) acute care general hospitals throughout New Mexico operate emergency departments and provide vital emergency medical services to patients requiring immediate medical care; and
(2) federal and state laws require hospitals that operate an emergency department to provide certain emergency services and care to any person, regardless of that person’s ability to pay. Accordingly, these hospitals encounter significant financial losses when treating uninsured or underinsured patients.
B. As used in this section:
(1) “limited service hospital” means a hospital that limits admissions according to medical or surgical specialty, type of disease or medical condition, or a hospital that limits its inpatient hospital services to surgical services or invasive diagnostic and treatment procedures; provided, however, that a “limited service hospital” does not include:
(a) a hospital licensed by the authority as a special hospital;
(b) an eleemosynary hospital that does not bill patients for services provided;
or
(c) a hospital that has been granted a license prior to January 1, 2003; and
(2) “low-income patient” means a patient whose family or household income does not exceed two hundred percent of the federal poverty level.
C. The authority shall issue a license to an acute-care or general hospital or a limited services hospital that agrees to:
(1) continuously maintain and operate an emergency department that provides emergency medical services as determined by the authority;
(2) participate in the medicaid, medicare and county indigent care programs; (3) require a physician owner to disclose a financial interest in the hospital before referring a patient to the hospital;
(4) comply with the same quality standards applied to other hospitals; (5) provide emergency services and general health care to nonpaying patients and low-income reimbursed patients in the same proportion as the patients are treated in acute-care general hospitals in the local community, as determined by the authority in consultation with a statewide hospital organization, the government of the county in which the facilities are located and the affected hospitals; provided that:
(a) a hospital may appeal the determination of the authority as a final agency decision as provided in Section 39-3-1.1 N.M. Stat. Ann.; and
(b) the annual cost of the care required to be provided pursuant to this paragraph shall not exceed an amount equal to five percent of the hospital’s annual revenue; and
(6) require a health care provider to disclose a financial interest before referring a patient to the hospital.