As used in the Hospital Funding Act:

A. "another political subdivision" means a political subdivision of New Mexico, including a municipality and a special hospital district organized under the Special Hospital District Act [Chapter 4, Article 48A NMSA 1978], but not including a county;

B. "class A county" means a county having a population of more than two hundred thousand persons according to the last federal decennial census;

C. "contracting hospital" means a hospital located in New Mexico that enters into a health care facilities contract with a county or counties or another political subdivision;

D. "county" means any county of the state;

E. "county commissioners" means the board of county commissioners of a county;

F. "county hospital" means a hospital owned by a county;

G. "health care facilities contract" means an agreement between a hospital and a county or counties, or between a hospital and a county or counties and another political subdivision, that provides for the payment by the county or counties of all or a portion of the proceeds of a mill levy to the hospital in exchange for the agreement by the hospital to use the funds only for nonsectarian purposes and to make available the following for the sick of the county or counties:

(1) hospital facilities that admit and treat patients without regard to race, sex, religion or national origin;

(2) hospital facilities that include x-ray, laboratory services and a pharmacy or drug room;

(3) adequate emergency equipment, personnel and procedures, including:

(a) a standby emergency power system;

(b) at least one person capable and authorized to initiate immediate lifesaving measures;

(c) facilities for emergency laboratory work, including, as a minimum, urinalysis, complete blood count, blood type and cross match; and

(d) diagnostic radiographic facilities;

(4) facilities, procedures and policies for prevention, control and reporting of communicable diseases, including one or more rooms for isolation of patients having or suspected of having communicable diseases;

(5) adequate records, including, as a minimum, a daily census and a register of all births, deliveries, deaths, admissions, emergency room admissions, discharges, operations, outpatients, inpatients and narcotics; and

(6) physical facilities, personnel, equipment and procedures that comply with the regulations promulgated by the public health division of the department of health;

H. "hospital governing board" means the board that governs a county hospital or the board of directors or trustees of a contracting hospital;

I. "mill levy" means the rate of the tax, at a rate specified in the Hospital Funding Act, in terms of dollars per thousand dollars of net taxable value of property subject to taxation within the county;

J. "municipality" means any city, town or village incorporated under a general act, special act or special charter; and

K. "equipping" or "re-equipping" means purchase or lease of property of a character subject to the allowance for depreciation under Section 167 of the Internal Revenue Code of, as amended or renumbered, and regulations promulgated in accordance with that section.

History: 1978 Comp., § 4-48B-3, enacted by Laws 1981, ch. 83, § 3; 1991, ch. 212, § 12; 2003, ch. 285, § 1.

Cross references. — For the provision in the Internal Revenue Code concerning depreciation, see 26 U.S.C.S. § 167.

The 2003 amendment, effective April 8, 2003, deleted "except a class A county" in Subsection D; added "a" in Subsection G(3)(b); substituted "department of health" for "health and environment department" at the end of Subsection G(6); in Subsection K, inserted "Section 167 of" following "for depreciation under", and substituted "1986, as amended or renumbered, and regulations promulgated in accordance with that section" for "1954 Section 167, and regulations promulgated thereunder" at the end.

The 1991 amendment, effective July 1, 1991, added present Subsections B and D; redesignated former Subsection B as Subsection C and Subsections C to I as Subsections E to K; substituted "public health division" for "health services division" in Paragraph (6) of Subsection G; and made minor stylistic change throughout the section.