Republicans in the New Mexico Senate announced this week that they’re convening a legislative task force to tackle the state’s health care challenges, saying their Democratic colleagues have “refused to take action,” according to a Tuesday news release.
The task force will meet on Sept. 29 in the Sandoval County Commission chambers in Rio Rancho. According to an agenda, the three-hour meeting will address medical malpractice reform and elicit testimony from local hospital leaders, government reform groups and patients. New Mexico Health Secretary Gina DeBlassie will also speak.
The meeting “is a direct response to ongoing public interest and concern regarding New Mexico’s deteriorating access to quality healthcare,” according to a news release from the Senate GOP. “Furthermore, this hearing was organized in large part due to the fact that despite official requests from Republican legislators, Democrats in the legislature have refused to take action or host meaningful discussions on this topic during the interim legislative committee process.”
The hearing will occur two days before a special legislative session focused on anticipated federal cuts to Medicaid, among other topics. Republicans previously called on Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, to include medical malpractice reform on the Oct. 1 session agenda, though she has not done so. They subsequently pushed back at the limited scope of the special session and requested additional topics, including interstate medical compacts, which would allow health care workers licensed in other states to practice in New Mexico.
Think New Mexico, a nonpartisan policy organization, found in a report published last year that New Mexico has one medical malpractice lawsuit for every 14,000 New Mexicans, more than twice the national average. Also, a spate of high-dollar judgements has raised costs of medical malpractice insurance, sometimes by as much as 500%. The organization also has said high medical malpractice insurance costs are a major contributing factor to a statewide doctor shortage.
Think New Mexico, whose leaders are scheduled to speak at the GOP hearing on Monday, also advocates for the state to join more interstate medical compacts to address health care worker shortages,, and last week said failure to do so quickly could put the state’s rural hospitals at risk.
The state’s health care labor landscape came up Tuesday during a meeting of the Legislative Finance Committee, during which analysts released results from a secret shopper survey from August. LFC analysts called 256 primary care physicians and 259 doctors for behavioral health care appointments under Medicaid. They found it took six phone calls, on average, to secure an appointment.
The GOP task force meeting Monday will also be livestreamed. Sen. Craig Brandt of Rio Rancho will chair the task force. Other Senate Republicans on the force are Nicole Tobiassen of Albuquerque, Anthony “Ant” Thornton of Sandia Park, Jay Block of Rio Rancho and Pat Woods of Broadview.
