As the end of year approaches, New Mexico will possibly be losing the only program that has provided free medical services to its residents for the past 10 years.
NurseAdvice New Mexico is a hotline service that provides medical advice for callers — insured or otherwise — from registered nurses who determine what the best option is for symptoms they are having, whether that be linking callers to resources or educating them.
Connie Florenzio, the program director of NurseAdvice New Mexico, highlighted the positive impacts that the program has had on the state in the past decade.
“When the line was opened in 2006 one of the key founding factors was that we wanted to provide services equitably to the entire population, including those who are insured and underinsured,” Florenzio said. “In other words, those who do not have any other resources.”
She emphasized the fact that there is no other resource like NANM that provides free services like they do.
“We use evidence-based protocols to triage patient symptoms so that we are able to direct them to the appropriate level of care. In doing so, we avoid a large amount of unnecessary emergency room visits,” she said. “Of the people who tell us they would have gone to the emergency room about 66 percent are diverted to a lower, more appropriate level of care.”
Inquiries being answered on calls can range from whether professional care is necessary to questions about flu shots.
“We also take all the immunization calls for the state. When people want to know where they can get their kids immunized we take those calls,” she said.
Florenzio the state relies on NANM to alert officials if outbreaks or epidemics are underway, including when there was a rise in people showing symptoms of H1N1.
“We have software that monitors our clinical calls every 24 hours and looks for keywords,” she said. “If the software sees an increase in symptoms we get alerts that can help the Department of Health identify outbreaks.”
She described that not only was NANM providing residents with free health advice, but also that they were saving the state a large sum of money.
Florenzio said a health economist at UNM found in a 2015 study that savings alone in appropriate emergency room diversions saved the state health systems of New Mexico more than $5 million a year.
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Even though NANM is saving the state money, Florenzio described how much the program is underfunded as a result of a change in state funding.
“Only four out of the 33 hospitals in the state partner with us and support the line — San Juan in Farmington, Gila down in the Southwest, the University and Union County,” she said. “All the other hospitals in the region, even though they utilize us on a regular basis, refuse to support the line. We end up with 20 percent of our calls having no funding source.”
She conveyed how determined the program was in working with legislators and HSC to come up with several different options for financing that were budget neutral for the state. However, none of the options were well received.
“There is a huge disparity in the way that we are funded,” she said.
NANM also takes behavior health calls and works very closely with the Behavior Health Crisis Line. However, the amounts of funding the programs receive are different and not exactly proportional.
The Behavior Health Crisis Line gets about 36,000 calls a year and they get $1.3 million in state funding, while NANM does 125,000 calls a year and get a little bit more than $300,000 in state funding, she said.
Not only does the lack of funds affect the lifespan of the program, but it will take away the jobs of the currently employed nurses at NANM.
“The nurses that work here are very committed to the mission of this line,” she said. “We are a small non-profit, and our pay scale is a lot lower than other places. They could be making more money elsewhere, however they are very dedicated.”
Florenzio indicated that the program has downsized its’ employees but is still lacking funds to keep the hotline running.
“Our cash reserves will run out by the end of this year and we will not have enough to continue to operate,” she said. “I am hoping that if we create enough noise that there will be some call to action.”
Larena Gonzales, a sophomore pre-nursing major, said taking this program away would affect those who have no insurance, because most medical services require people to have some source of insurance.
“I feel like that is a tool that they really rely on,” she said. “I also feel like this is a safety issue too.”
She said she believed that removal of program could lead to emergency rooms being a nightmare.
“It could overcrowd the emergency rooms and people that have real injuries are not really going to get the assistance they need,” she said. “It’s a real disappointment…it will take a lot away from the community. I think that students should promote this program because I actually did not know about this program until recently.”
Megan Nyce is a news reporter for the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at news@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @Megznham.
