By Susan Morée
A bill that aims to improve recruitment of healthcare providers passed 7-3 Wednesday with bipartisan support in the House Health and Human Services Committee.
The bill, HB 15, Healthcare Strategic Recruitment Program, sponsored by Rep. Marianna Anaya, D-Albuquerque, would allocate $2 million to the Department of Workforce Solutions as part of an effort to sway graduates of medical programs in New Mexico to return to the state if they’ve left to work elsewhere.
The bill, if enacted, would enable the agency to compile data on health care program graduates and gather relevant information on job opportunities, housing and amenities to disseminate to New Mexico graduates who’ve moved out-of-state.
Rep. Jenifer Jones, R-Deming, is also a sponsor of the bill and she was the sole Republican to vote for it. Jones said she spent some time working in Kansas as a nurse and might have responded to a recruitment effort to bring her back to her home state.
“I’m not, in general, in favor of growing government, but sometimes we need to invest. I’m supportive of the concept,” Jones said.
Some Republicans on the committee spoke about how much they were in support of the concept but each had different reasons for voting against it. House Minority Floor Whip Alan Martinez, R-Española, said he would like to see the program housed in the New Mexico Healthcare Authority instead of the Department of Workforce Solutions.
Anaya said the Department of Workforce Solutions would be a better home for the program, which will be a pilot program to start, because she hopes it will eventually broaden to become a recruitment tool for other industries experiencing labor shortages, such as education.
Rep. Eleanor Chávez, D-Albuquerque, asked if the program would also reach out to medical professionals currently working within the state.
Anaya said that because this is a pilot program, it had to be narrow in scope and the priority is to recruit people who have left the state.
The bill now heads to the House Appropriations and Finance Committee.
Does this include incentives for direct support staff (e.g. nurse aides). These individuals usually work at minimum wage and the entirety of long-term services and supports is dependent on them
I am going through a very difficult time
Because of the shortage in Las Cruces.
As an older person I have had to
Risk getting a heart attack or stroke
Because of the pain I am experiencing.
Picking up an additional BP med now.
Engaging in travel DRs is a must.
It seems to me that it would be wise to
What about other health care providers, like behavioral healthcare providers. We have a mental health crisis in this country. But, then, very few could afford to live here.
I vote yes to focus on recruiting health care workers back to New Mexico to serve all New Mexicans and Tribes.
No one wants to work in settings where there are no mandated safe staffing ratios, especially in a state so close to CA where they not only have safe staffing ratios but also pay better. I’m leaving for CA myself within the next six months.
The program should include mandates that UNM School of Medicine accept NM residents as students over out of state and foreigners!
Another band aid on a completely dysfunctional and unjust for-profit health care system.
National health care or nothing