Committee backs memorial urging Medicaid pediatric palliative care benefit

Sponsor (identified in the transcript as "Senator Stevonix") introduced Senate Memorial 2, asking the New Mexico Health Care Authority to submit a state-plan amendment to add a pediatric palliative care benefit under Medicaid after a constituent case revealed gaps in access. The sponsor emphasized the memorial is intended to raise attention and allow the Health Care Authority time to identify budget and staffing needs.

Megan Lorino, executive director of the New Mexico Association for Home and Hospice Care, cited a University of New Mexico Center for Health Policy proposal that the committee heard estimated roughly 881 children in New Mexico are eligible for pediatric palliative care and described a positive return on investment for the benefit. "We hope that New Mexico will begin offering this humane and critical pediatric palliative care," Lorino said.

Clinical witnesses described the care gap and how a Medicaid benefit would work in practice. Dr. Corey Lee, director of psychosocial services at Heroes Path Palliative, said pediatric palliative care "simply reduces suffering" and can prevent avoidable hospitalizations by bringing symptom management and psychosocial supports to families before crises. Nicole Scotto, a rural pediatric hospice nurse with Envoy Hospice, described long travel times and the equipment families must transport for rural care: "They load up suction machines, oxygen tanks, feeding pumps...and emergency backup generators to power their children's portable ventilators," she said, urging expanded local capacity.

Witnesses and the sponsor explained why the measure is a memorial rather than a statute: adding a Medicaid benefit will require Health Care Authority planning, designation of an FTE, and a budget appropriation; once a state-plan amendment is submitted the federal match is typically 50% federal/50% state. Committee members asked about provider capacity and billing; witnesses said scarce pediatric-trained providers and lack of a billing pathway have limited the provider network outside Albuquerque.

The committee recorded a unanimous "do pass" recommendation on the memorial with no opposition on the record; the memorial requests HCA action and further planning but does not itself create a benefit or appropriation.