New Mexico Code § 13-7-26

Behavioral health services; elimination of cost sharing
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A. Group health coverage, including any form of self-insurance, offered, issued or
renewed under the Health Care Purchasing Act that offers coverage of behavioral
health services shall not impose cost sharing on those behavioral health services in
network.
B. For the purposes of this section:
(1) "behavioral health services" means professional and ancillary services for
the treatment, habilitation, prevention and identification of mental illnesses, substance
abuse disorders and trauma spectrum disorders, including inpatient, detoxification,
residential treatment and partial hospitalization, intensive outpatient therapy, outpatient
therapy and all medications, including brand-name pharmacy drugs when generics are
unavailable;
(2) "coinsurance" means a cost-sharing method that requires an enrollee to
pay a stated percentage of medical expenses after any deductible amount is paid;
provided that coinsurance rates may differ for different types of services under the same
group health plan;
(3) "copayment" means a cost-sharing method that requires an enrollee to
pay a fixed dollar amount when health care services are received, with the plan
administrator paying the balance of the allowable amount; provided that there may be
different copayment requirements for different types of services under the same group
health plan; and
(4) "cost sharing" means a copayment, coinsurance, deductible or any other
form of financial obligation of an enrollee other than a premium or a share of a premium,
or any combination of any of these financial obligations, as defined by the terms of a
group health plan.
C. The provisions of this section do not apply to excepted benefit plans as provided
under the Short-Term Health Plan and Excepted Benefit Act [Chapter 59A, Article 23G
NMSA 1978], catastrophic plans as defined under 42 USCA Section 18022(e) or high-
deductible health plans with health savings accounts until an enrollee's deductible has
been met, unless otherwise permitted by federal law.
History: Laws 2021, ch. 136, § 3; 2025, ch. 115, § 1.

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