By Susan Morée
A group of legislators Tuesday announced a slate of bills aimed at improving the quality of healthcare in the face of private equity ownership in New Mexico.
With approximately 38% percent of New Mexico hospitals owned by private equity, legislators are looking to address private equity ownership they say leads to staffing cuts in order to increase profits. Legislators and advocates seeking to address the issue say New Mexico is one of the most vulnerable states for private equity firms buying hospitals and other medical practices.
Rep. Kathleen Cates, a Democrat from Rio Rancho, plans on sponsoring a bill that would require minimum staffing requirement ratios in New Mexico hospitals. Those ratios would be based on national best practices standards.
Cates said when hospitals lower the number of nurses on staff, it leads to high turnover rates as well as poor outcomes for patients. She said her bill would help to address the provider shortage in New Mexico.
“We believe it will be a great recruitment tool,” Cates said during a Tuesday news conference. “When [providers] have an important task and are given an unsafe ratio of provider to patient care, they are definitely not satisfied with their work.”
Rep. Eleanor Chávez, D-Las Cruces, pre-filed House Bill 72, and said on Tuesday her bill would establish a state-level committee made up of a variety of stakeholders who will advise the New Mexico Healthcare Authority on staffing ratios. If a hospital fails to meet recommended ratios and refuses to follow a corrective action plan, it could face civil fines up to $50,000.
Chávez said New Mexico’s healthcare is in a crisis.
“We believe corporate greed is the driver,” Chavez said.
Cates told NM Political Report her bill also has an enforcement mechanism that could lead to funding cuts by the Legislature..
Cates’ second bill would help to provide low-interest home loans to low-income medical and behavioral health workers.
The loan will provide up to 10% of a down payment and closing costs and would only have to be paid back if the provider sells their house. If the provider remains in their house for more than 10 years, 100% of the loan is forgiven.
Cates told NM Political Report that the housing subsidy bill will come with a request for $5 million from the general fund.
Rep. Marianna Anaya, D-Albuquerque, will also be introducing a bill that would provide services to help health care workers who have already left New Mexico return and could, if enacted, help with everything from navigating licensure requirements to helping returning providers search for housing.
So glad to see our legislators begin to deal with the health care crisis in New Mexico; they should all read the report written by the Think New Mexico organization on the specific things they might propose to deal with this multifaceted problem that we face here.
Sen Katy Duhigg is also working on a bill addressing private equity ownership of hospitals and medical practices, to be run through the state insurance administration as I understand it.
Unless the bad Medicaid reimbursement and terrible medical malpractice situation in this state is addressed, the problem won’t be solved.
They need to do something about the high cost of malpractice insurance to the doctors. No one wants to come here. To many lawyers in our legislature. Look at California law
I don’t believe it’s corporate greed as much as political greed. Santa Fe upped the malpractice requirement, providers have to pay GRT. If you want to correct/help healthcare in New Mexico fining hospital hospitals money for not meeting your criteria, isn’t it. If you would lower the malpractice back to what it was and get rid of grocery seats tax for providers that would help a lot.
Glad lawmakers are focused on this problem. I’ve watched Lovelace drive off three of my PCPs over the last 5-6 years, giving them way more patients than they can possibly handle. The last doc was told he would receive a PA to help manage the load. I assume that never happened because the next thing I new, he had moved to Texas. I never even had a chance to meet with my next PCP. She left Lovelace before the date of my first appointment arrived!
The problem is that this will cause more hospitals to close, telling hospitals that they have to staff to ratios just makes it harder to make a profit in a state that already has so many rules that most systems are pulling out. If they wanted to help healthcare workers, they could have an incentive for cheaper housing or lower state tax for medical providers. Aka, look doc free housing and no taxes.
How about tuition free medical training for nurses, doctors and other highly trained medical techs like physical therapists at NM public colleges and universities. Structure it as a loan, waived upon x years of practice in the state.
good work, now push it through.
Hope to see much more reporting on this issue. No doubt private equity will spend heavily to oppose laws that will harm their profits.
Until lower limits on malpractice claims are adopted this state will always have MD shortages.
This is nonsense. The docs left after the legislature raised malpractice caps to benefit the trial attorneys. Now we have the highest malpractice insurance rates in the country. That law needs to be repealed and a new law mirroring other states enacted.