{"id":10665,"date":"2009-12-27T14:19:38","date_gmt":"2009-12-27T21:19:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=10665"},"modified":"2009-12-27T14:25:50","modified_gmt":"2009-12-27T21:25:50","slug":"top-10-honorable-mention-behavioral-health-contract-problems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/12\/top-10-honorable-mention-behavioral-health-contract-problems\/","title":{"rendered":"Top 10 honorable mention: Behavioral health contract problems"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_6964\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 300px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-6964\" title=\"Roundhouse\" src=\"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/Roundhouse1.jpg\" alt=\"The Roundhouse in Santa Fe (Photo by cjc4454\/flickr.com)\" width=\"300\" height=\"227\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Roundhouse in Santa Fe (Photo by cjc4454\/flickr.com)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The state switched behavioral health services providers in 2009, and the transition was <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/07\/behavioral-health-transition-rocky-on-both-ends\/\">rocky on both ends<\/a>. A bipartisan group of lawmakers sent\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.haussamen.com\/VOSpecialAuditRequest.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">a letter<\/a> to State Auditor\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.saonm.org\/about-hector-balderas\" target=\"_blank\">Hector Balderas<\/a> in July requesting a special audit of the contract with the outgoing provider, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.valueoptions.com\/newmexico\/\" target=\"_blank\">ValueOptions<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>They lodged a host of complaints including that providers were not being reimbursed in a timely manner or at all for services they provided, that clients were being inappropriately denied service and that the company retaliated against providers who complained.<\/p>\n<p>But complaints appeared to be just as prevalent, if not more so, on the other end. The company that took over the contract, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.optumhealthnewmexico.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">OptumHealth<\/a>, was <a href=\"http:\/\/newmexicoindependent.com\/40821\/firm-faces-big-fine-possible-loss-of-contract-state-says\">fined $1.4 million<\/a> in October by the state and could lose the lucrative state contract because, the state charged, OptumHealth had not paid millions of dollars it owed to service providers.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-10654\" title=\"Top 10 2009\" src=\"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/12\/Top-10-2009.jpg\" alt=\"Top 10 2009\" width=\"100\" height=\"169\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Both companies <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/05\/valueoptions-optumhealth-both-gave-big-to-guv\/\">gave big<\/a> to the campaigns of Gov. <a href=\"http:\/\/governor.state.nm.us\/\">Bill Richardson<\/a>. (Surprise!)<\/p>\n<p>This may have been the most underreported story of 2009. It had a dramatic and widespread effect on organizations that provide necessary services to New Mexicans &#8212; and to the New Mexicans those organizations serve.<\/p>\n<p>This didn\u2019t quite make it onto my list of the top 10 stories of the year, but it\u2019s definitely worth an honorable mention.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The state switched behavioral health services providers in 2009, and the transition was rocky on both ends. This didn\u2019t quite make it onto Heath Haussamen\u2019s list of the top 10 stories of the year, but it\u2019s definitely worth an honorable mention.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1],"tags":[107],"class_list":["post-10665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","category-uncategorized","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10665\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}