{"id":145160,"date":"2016-04-19T12:03:59","date_gmt":"2016-04-19T18:03:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=145160"},"modified":"2016-04-20T10:56:31","modified_gmt":"2016-04-20T16:56:31","slug":"martinez-owes-new-mexicans-an-apology-for-medicaid-freeze","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2016\/04\/martinez-owes-new-mexicans-an-apology-for-medicaid-freeze\/","title":{"rendered":"Martinez owes New Mexicans an apology for Medicaid freeze"},"content":{"rendered":"

COMMENTARY:<\/strong>\u00a0Good leaders apologize when they make mistakes. I accepted<\/a> Gov. Susana Martinez\u2019s apology for her pizza party debacle in December in part because such humility from elected officials, given the pressure to appear perfect in our scandal-hungry society, is rare.<\/p>\n

\"Heath

Heath Haussamen<\/p><\/div>\n

Now Martinez owes New Mexicans an apology for a devastating decision by her Administration. Thus far, she\u2019s not offering one.<\/p>\n

When the Martinez Administration falsely insisted it had no choice<\/a> but to freeze Medicaid funding to 15 behavioral health organizations in 2013, it was clear that the Administration was, at best, making a huge mistake. The Medicaid freeze forced health providers out of business. It put tens of thousands of New Mexicans needing help with issues like depression and suicidal thoughts at risk by disrupting services<\/a> and creating chaos<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It took a colleague of mine a few hours of reporting to figure out that the Administration could have continued funding the organizations<\/a> to ensure services weren\u2019t disrupted while law enforcement investigated possible fraud.<\/p>\n

Either the Martinez Administration didn\u2019t understand the federal rules or, even worse, it was trying to deceive New Mexicans. Long after we at New Mexico In Depth, where I was working at the time, reported the truth \u2013 that funding could have continued<\/a> during the investigation \u2013 the Administration wrongly insisted it had no choice and downplayed disruptions in services.<\/p>\n

The Administration has defended itself by pointing out that two health organizations returned $4.24 million in alleged overpayments in exchange for restored funding. Presbyterian Medical\u00a0Services, which repaid $4 million, disputed owing that much but said<\/a> its aim was to preserve \u201ccritical safety net behavioral health services\u201d and jobs.<\/p>\n

With its funding held hostage, Presbyterian gave in. Others that fought are bogged down in litigation. Many have gone out of business or limped along.<\/p>\n

Five Arizona companies brought in to fill the gap in services have also struggled. Three have since quit providing services in New Mexico, sparking additional transitions and disruptions.<\/p>\n

Now the attorney general has cleared<\/a> all 15 New Mexico providers the Administration accused of \u201ccredible allegations of fraud\u201d in 2013.<\/p>\n

All 15. No fraud.<\/p>\n

There were some billing problems. Some organizations owe money. That could have been addressed without putting people at risk.<\/p>\n

The way the Martinez Administration responded to concerns about fraud has been a complete disaster<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ever since, the Administration has engaged in a campaign of misinformation, spin, and secrecy<\/a>. Martinez\u2019s response<\/a> to all 15 organizations being cleared of fraud was deflection: \u201cMedicaid funds should be used to provide basic health care for those in need, and I will never turn a blind eye to wealthy CEOs who break the public\u2019s trust and do things like funnel public money to family members and squander tax dollars on private planes,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

No acknowledgement that she\u2019s even aware of the damage her Administration has caused.<\/p>\n

One of the Arizona providers that has quit working in New Mexico is suing<\/a> United Healthcare and its subsidiary, OptumHealth New Mexico \u2013 the go-between at the time that distributed state Medicaid funds to providers. OptumHealth covered up its own problems by blaming the 15 New Mexico health organizations, La Frontera alleges.<\/p>\n

Maybe the Martinez Administration was duped. Or maybe the truth about why the Administration froze funding is much worse.<\/p>\n

Regardless, Martinez needs to apologize for crippling this important government safety net. And she must foster a transparent, honest discussion about how we fix her Administration\u2019s mess.<\/p>\n

A prior version of this commentary incorrectly stated that Presbyterian Health Services, not Presbyterian Medical Services, repaid the state $4 million. Presbyterian Healthcare Services is not affiliated with Presbyterian Medical Services, the company that repaid the $4 million. NMPolitics.net regrets the error and has corrected this commentary.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The way the Martinez Administration responded to concerns about possible Medicaid fraud has been a complete disaster.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":55852,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192,10],"tags":[117,3281,107,208],"class_list":["post-145160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","category-haussamen-columns","tag-health-care","tag-medicaid-freeze","tag-roundhouse","tag-susana-martinez"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145160","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=145160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145160\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}