By Pat Davis, The Paper . — After posting a half-billion dollar loss in 2025, Presbyterian Healthcare Services suddenly announced today that it will stop providing health services next year to 30,000 Medicare Advantage patients and they have laid off about 150 staff, effective immediately.
Dr. Rishi Sikka, President and CEO at PHS, made the announcement today to staff in an internal video and memo shared with The Paper. The decisions were designed to ensure the company could continue to expand options for other patients long-term, he wrote. The company did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.
As of January 2026, there were 239,822 New Mexico Medicare beneficiaries with Medicare Advantage coverage according to the federal Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Medicare Advantage (also known as “Part C” Medicare) is a private insurance alternative to traditional Medicare for seniors. Presbyterian Health Services’ 2025 annual report says that approximately 60,000 of their more than 540,000 insured New Mexicans use Medicare Advantage. Patients impacted “will need to find coverage next year. Coverage for 2026 will stay the same,” Sikka wrote today.
The business rating firm Fitch Ratings recently downgraded PHS’s ratings citing ongoing losses saying “Losses widened in fiscal 2025 even after incorporating additional funds from New Mexico’s State Directed Payment Program.” On the system’s longterm outlook, Fitch said “Management has articulated an improvement plan that could still result in an operating loss in fiscal 2026.”
After posting a $377 million loss in 2022 it opened a new 11-story patient tower at its Albrquerque location east of Downtown. In 2023 PHS announced, then suddenly cancelled, an $11 billion merger with an Iowa-based health service. Longtime CEO Dale Maxwell retired in 2024 and was replaced by Dr. Rishi Sikka. In 2025, the company reported a loss of $568.2 million.
PHS operates seven hospitals and a network of clinics in New Mexico.