Governor, advocates talk next steps after bills aimed at doctor shortage fail

Yahoo

28-03-2025

Dr. Angelina Villas-Adams wants to "stop the bleed."
And by that Villas-Adams, a gastroenterologist and president of the New Mexico Medical Society, means she wants to halt the flow of New Mexico medical providers to other states.
"We need a fix for our state and for our patients … and we need a fix for the medical community, so that physicians and providers and clinicians can have a safe space to practice medicine," Villas-Adams said in an interview.
That fix didn't come during this year's legislative session. Though lawmakers repeatedly framed New Mexico's shortage of medical providers as a priority, the Legislature failed to pass most of its major health care workforce reforms, including an overhaul of the medical malpractice system and interstate compacts to ease the arrival of practitioners.
The health care worker shortage has grown so dire, in fact, that it created common ground among the Legislature's Republican leadership and Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham. In comments following the conclusion of the session, both urged more work on the issue.
In a letter to the governor, all six Republican legislative leaders called for "an immediate special session" to address "the inability of New Mexicans to receive health care due to the lack of medical professionals," in addition to the state's violent crime problem.
'I don't disagree with the Republican caucus's sentiment on malpractice and on our doctor shortage. It is real,' Lujan Grisham said during a news conference Saturday.
There is always next year — though passing nonbudget-related bills during the 30-day budget session in 2026 will require special permission from the governor.
But Villas-Adams argued the issue has to be addressed — and soon.
"We don't have two years," she said. "People are having delayed diagnosis. People are going to die or are dying because they aren't getting access to care."
This year's legislative session didn't move the needle on New Mexico's health care worker shortage, said Troy Clark, president and CEO of the New Mexico Hospital Association.
"Where it leaves us today is, unfortunately, the same place we've been," he said in an interview.
There's no "silver bullet" for the state's health care system, Clark said, there are simply "many, many, many things that need to be done."
First on the list to recruit and retain doctors, he added, is addressing medical malpractice.
There were several bills introduced this year to tackle that issue, the biggest being Senate Bill 176. Backed by nonpartisan think tank Think New Mexico, the proposal would have capped attorneys' fees at a quarter of settlement money or a third of jury award; created a reimbursement system to cover injured patients' medical expenses as they're incurred; and siphoned off 75% of any punitive damages to fund a 'patient safety improvement fund.'
It inspired much discussion, with the New Mexico Medical Society and physicians arguing SB 176's changes were essential to lower medical malpractice insurance premiums. Others spoke out against the bill, arguing for methods of retaining providers that don't take away from injured patients or the attorneys that represent them.
SB 176 didn't get its first committee vote until March 14 — about a week before the end of the session — and it failed to advance from there.
Think New Mexico also backed nine bills to add New Mexico to interstate compacts for various health care providers, which proponents argued would ease the process for providers to move to and practice in the state. All of them failed to make it across the finish line.
But that's not to say lawmakers did nothing for health care policy during the session.
"This Legislature this session did a lot of work to help incentivize more access to health care," House Speaker Javier Martínez, D-Albuquerque, said during an end-of-session news conference.
This year's much-disputed tax package, House Bill 14, includes a gross receipts tax deduction for health care practitioners.
And, the Legislature passed House Bill 586, which increases state oversight of hospital mergers and acquisitions. The bill's sponsor, House Majority Leader Reena Szczepanski, argued HB 586 would maintain health care access and affordability as New Mexico grapples with a particularly high rate of hospitals owned by private equity firms.
"The more that private equity firms take over our health care facilities, particularly those in rural New Mexico, they are known for siphoning off profits and literally bankrupting these institutions," Martínez said. "And it is a real shame — it is a damn shame — that that is happening."
So what now?
'I do think our medical [provider] shortage is a crisis," Lujan Grisham said on the final day of the session. "People die when they can't get access to health care. People die when they can't get a cancer diagnosis on time. People die when they can't get the right therapies. These are real issues in New Mexico.'
She scolded lawmakers for blocking "any meaningful work" on medical malpractice reform and reiterated her commitment to keeping providers in New Mexico, noting her confidence that legislators will make investments in meaningful policy changes.
Lujan Grisham promised to keep working on the issue.
'We could have done much more here," she said. "We fought and got some, but we didn't get all the resources we asked for to make sure that, while we negotiate a path on malpractice, that I could keep doctors here and recruit more of them.'
Republican leaders are also ready to keep working, writing in their letter to Lujan Grisham, "We stand ready to work with our Democrat colleagues and your office in adopting effective answers to both our violent crime and health care crises."
Senate Majority Leader Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe, said finding a solution will require cooperation and compromise from all parties involved — though there is momentum, especially from Lujan Grisham, to keep those conversations going.
"If there's things that we can do and make it better, I think we're open to that," Wirth said during the end-of-session news conference. "But again, we need to do that with the time to get it right."