In the 2024 legislative session, the Health Security Campaign and its champions Rep. Eleanor Chavez and Rep. Liz Thompson secured $440,000 to hire consultants to develop New Mexico solutions to the key causes of skyrocketing health care costs. This initiative is known as the Health Cost Drivers Project.
The 2024 legislative session also saw the passage of SB 15 – the Health Care Consolidation Oversight Act. Governor Lujan Grisham initiated this legislation in response to widespread concern about the increasing corporate control of hospitals and other health care services in New Mexico – particularly by private equity firms.
The Health Security Campaign actively supported SB 15. Corporate control over our health care is one of the drivers of rising health costs identified by the Health Cost Drivers Project. Extensive research correlates corporate takeover of hospitals with higher costs, cuts to staff and services, and a variety of adverse patient outcomes.
While SB 15 created a temporary review process of health care entity mergers and acquisitions, the governor directed the Superintendent of Insurance to be in charge of developing a comprehensive piece of legislation to be introduced in 2025.
Though oversight of future health care consolidations is necessary, it is not sufficient. The Health Security Campaign has consistently pointed out why so many of our hospitals and medical practices are such vulnerable targets. Financial sustainability has to be addressed. The Cost Drivers Project contains various solutions, including a system that guarantees revenue to pay for hospital budgets, a major solution that addresses the heart of this problem.
Thus, it is critical to keep in mind that while we support oversight of future consolidations, the bill:
• will not address hospitals and medical practices currently owned or managed by out-of-state-entities (such as Memorial Health Center in Las Cruces or RMCH in Gallup)
• will not protect staff and patients who want to report problems that are impacting patient care
• will not address who sits on hospitals boards that includes local decision-making power
• will not address corporate rules that tell those who are licensed to practice medicine how to care for their patients
• will not make hospitals financially sustainable and able to provide needed essential services, especially in rural areas
This is why it is so important for you to contact your legislators and tell them how critical it is for the state to invest in the Cost Drivers Project.