HB 56/a
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AN ACT
RELATING TO HEALTH CARE; REQUIRING THE SECRETARY OF HEALTH
CARE AUTHORITY TO MAKE MEDICAID REIMBURSEMENT FOR SERVICES
PROVIDED AT BIRTH CENTERS SIMILAR TO REIMBURSEMENT FOR
SERVICES PROVIDED AT HOSPITALS.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO:
SECTION 1. A new section of the Public Assistance Act
is enacted to read:
"EQUITABLE REIMBURSEMENT FOR SERVICES PROVIDED AT BIRTH
CENTERS.--
A. For the purposes of this section:
(1) "birth center" means a freestanding
birth center licensed by the state for the primary purpose of
performing low-risk deliveries that is not a hospital,
attached to a hospital or in a hospital and where births are
planned to occur away from the pregnant person's residence
following a low-risk pregnancy;
(2) "medicaid" means the medical assistance
program established pursuant to Title 19 of the federal
Social Security Act and regulations issued pursuant to that
act; and
(3) "medicaid recipient" means a person whom
the department has determined to be eligible to receive
medicaid-related services. HB 56/a
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B. The secretary shall adopt rules that:
(1) create a methodology to determine
medicaid facility fee reimbursement rates for birth centers
that are comparable to rates for similar services provided at
a hospital; and
(2) require annual increases to birth center
facility fee reimbursement rates that are equivalent to
hospital reimbursement rate increases."