NEW MEXICO

SJM 54, approved in 2002, asked the Governor's Committee on Concerns of the Handicapped (GSSH) to convene a task force to develop a comprehensive and coordinated state plan in response to Olmstead. SJM 54 called for "... the cooperation and participation of the human services department, the department of health and other appropriate agencies and stakeholders...." and asked for ".... timelines for implementation and fiscal impact on the state." GSSH held four stakeholder meetings in 2002 and used input from those meetings to develop the Initial State Olmstead Plan in response to SJM 54. The plan is not available on line, but is available through GSSH. An active task force currently.

The Initial State Olmstead Plan was presented to the Health and Human Services Interim Committee on October 16, 2002. The report's vision statement and guiding principles support an individualized service and support system that enable people with disabilities to choose to live and work in the most integrated settings possible. The plan contains recommendations for immediate actions, longer-term actions, and future actions. The focus of the immediate actions is on consumer direction, funding for reintegration services for people living nursing homes, continual assessment of the state's long-term care needs, funding for planning and data collection, training programs for families, and a moratorium on nursing home beds. The longer-term and future actions call for a variety of more complex activities related to service provision, housing, transportation, efficient administration, and other issues.

The authors of the plan say that the plan is "far from complete," due to a variety of factors. The plan identifies these factors as lack of accurate data, lack of consensus among service providers and agencies on service modalities, lack of time and money to receive input, lack of a process for determining the number of people in institutions who would seek community placement, fears about the state's economic situation, lack of interest from the administration, and lack of a centralized entity to produce reliable information.

The Consumer Direction Act-Senate Bill 839 enacted in 2003-states that "...consistent with the federal Social Security Act and subject to the appropriation and availability of federal and state funds, each administering department or agency shall by rule provide a program permitting a consumer or surrogate to direct personal assistance services through the hiring, supervision and training of an attendant or attendants paid through a fiscal intermediary under contract with the department." The law asks each agency to send a report to the legislature by October 1 each year that compares its consumer-directed option to other delivery modes. The law's implementation date was July 1, 2003.

The Medicaid Reform Committee Program-Senate Bill 332 enacted in 2003-directs the Human Services Department to undertake a set of "studies, analyses, and pilot projects" focused on Medicaid reform. One proposed study is a "... cost-benefit analysis and comparison of the personal care option's consumer-directed and consumer-delegated care components and evaluate the respective components" for cost-effectiveness, projected long-term costs, need for oversight for quality and fraud and abuse prevention, appropriateness of eligibility criteria, and anticipated savings.

New Mexico received funding in 2002 under the Real Choice Systems Change Grant. With funding totaling $1.385 million, the state's goals are the creation of a statewide Service Delivery Options Training Program to provide individuals with information about how to access services and make choices about their care and to establish a Network for Long-Term Care Policy Change.