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New Mexico

Task Force

A task force was created in 2002 through legislative action.

The Plan

New Mexico is drafting a plan with a set of recommendations (considered a work in progress) that has been submitted to the Legislative Interim Committee for review and comments and that has not been returned to the Committee on Concerns of the Handicapped, as of Dec. 11, 2002. The committee does not anticipate any further action will be taken on the draft plan until early 2003.

Implementation

SJM 54 was approved in 2002. This resolution requests that the Governor's Committee on Concerns of the Handicapped, with the cooperation and participation of the Human Services Department, the Health Department, and other appropriate agencies and stakeholders, lead a task force to develop a comprehensive and coordinated state plan in response to the Olmstead Supreme Court decision. The Health and Human Services departments are to report to the legislative health and human services committee and the legislative finance committee on the assessment of people currently in institutional settings in the state and their ability to live in community-based settings. They are required to report the number of people assessed that are inappropriately placed and the number of people who choose community living.

Lewis vs. New Mexico Department of Health is in federal court. It was filed on behalf of 3,000 individuals with developmental disabilities in nursing facilities on Medicaid waiver waiting lists who were not receiving their Medicaid services in the community and either had to go without services or accept institutional services. For an update on lawsuits in New Mexico and other states, see Status Report: Litigation Concerning Medicaid Services for Persons with Developmental and Other Disabilities by Gary A. Smith at http://www.hsri.org/index.asp?id=news

New Mexico's Human Services Department, Medical Assistance Division, received a $1.38 million Real Choice Systems Change Grant. The agency will disperse money to various agencies across the state through a request for proposal (RFP) system, which has yet to be established.

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