By Susan Morée
Remember “pharma bro” Martin Shkreli? Memorial Medical Center in Las Cruces might wish you didn’t.
The Lown Institute, a nonprofit based in Massachusetts devoted to accountability in healthcare, announced its 8th annual Shkreli Award this week. It placed Memorial Medical Center in Las Cruces as its top #5 “award winner” because the hospital faces allegations of refusing cancer treatment to patients.
Other allegations include that the hospital demanded payments for treatment up front, even from individuals who had private health insurance. It also, allegedly, refused care to patients without insurance.
Around a dozen former patients of Medical Memorial talked to NBC News last year about how they were turned away for treatment, including a nurse who previously worked for the hospital.
New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez launched an investigation about a month after the news story aired. The hospital leases its land from the city of Las Cruces and Doña Ana County. The reported lack of care has led to reviews by both the city and the county and the city announced in August last year that the hospital had breached its contract. The hospital is required to provide care to indigent patients, according to the city’s website.
A request for comment from both the hospital and from the Mayor of Las Cruces, Eric Enriquez, were not returned.
Martin Shkreli was dubbed “pharma bro” after he was charged and later convicted of securities fraud in 2018. He was sent to federal prison and was banned for life from serving in any capacity in the pharmaceutical industry. Shkreli’s former pharmaceutical firm jacked up the price of a life-saving drug by 5,000% in 2015.
The Lown Institute, in honor of Shkreli, holds a top ten award to highlight “the worst examples of profiteering and dysfunction in healthcare.”
The award citation notes that Memorial Medical Center is a for-profit hospital owned by Lifepoint Health, which, in turn, is owned by the private equity firm, Apollo Global Management.