{"id":383154,"date":"2017-07-07T12:18:21","date_gmt":"2017-07-07T18:18:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=383154"},"modified":"2017-07-10T06:14:22","modified_gmt":"2017-07-10T12:14:22","slug":"newspaper-enabled-governors-behavioral-health-tragedy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2017\/07\/newspaper-enabled-governors-behavioral-health-tragedy\/","title":{"rendered":"Newspaper enabled governor\u2019s behavioral health tragedy"},"content":{"rendered":"

COMMENTARY:<\/strong> While I and other journalists documented<\/a> the damage<\/a> caused<\/a> by Gov. Susana Martinez\u2019s freeze of behavioral health providers\u2019 Medicaid funding in 2013, her administration deflected blame.<\/p>\n

\"Heath

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

With possible overbilling and so-called \u201ccredible allegations of fraud\u201d in hand, the state\u2019s Human Services Department (HSD) said Obamacare required freezing the 15 organizations\u2019 funding during criminal investigations.<\/p>\n

Their claim was little comfort to the tens of thousands of people who had medical services disrupted and, in some cases, eliminated. HSD\u2019s claim was also false.<\/p>\n

When government acts destructively, journalists have a duty to question, to dig, to find truth and speak it. Some of us did. Federal regulations<\/a> \u201cgive the state discretion in deciding whether to suspend payments and risk disrupting patient care, according to experts, federal regulations and documents,\u201d the news organization New Mexico In Depth reported on July 11, 2013<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In other words, HSD \u201ccould have chosen not to abruptly suspend all Medicaid payments\u201d while still initiating investigations, NMID reported.<\/p>\n

At the time I was an editor at NMID and assisted on that story, which should have been a game-changer in the public\u2019s understanding of what was happening.<\/p>\n

Then came the Albuquerque Journal\u2019s editorial board.<\/p>\n

Those \u201cprotesting\u201d the Medicaid freeze \u201care targeting the wrong people,\u201d the editorial board stated on Aug. 1, 2013<\/a>. \u201cThe requirement to suspend payments where fraud is suspected is part of President Obama\u2019s Affordable Care Act.\u201d<\/p>\n

The editorial correctly stated that Obamacare changed a \u201cmay\u201d to a \u201cmust\u201d in federal regulations \u2013 as in, \u201cThe State Medicaid agency must suspend all Medicaid payments to a provider after the agency determines there is a credible allegation of fraud for which an investigation is pending\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

The editorial even quoted the most relevant part of the regulation to this discussion \u2013 \u201c\u2026unless the agency has good cause to not suspend payments or to suspend payment only in part.\u201d Good causes included preserving access to medical services.<\/p>\n

But the editorial ignored the \u201cunless.\u201d HSD \u201cis required to suspend all payments,\u201d it stated.<\/p>\n

That support for HSD\u2019s fake narrative gave the Martinez administration cover. \u201cSee, the state\u2019s real journalists know there was no choice,\u201d became a common social media narrative.<\/p>\n

Instead of restoring funding, HSD killed many health organizations and destabilized the statewide system, which has yet to recover.<\/p>\n

Four years later, the justification for HSD\u2019s decision has fallen apart<\/a>. The state attorney general found no fraud. HSD is seeking far less in overbilling reimbursements than it alleged. One Las Cruces organization originally accused of overbilling $2.8 million has to repay just $484.87<\/a> \u2013 for one claim that lacked documentation.<\/p>\n

Armed with hindsight, the Journal\u2019s editorial board flip-flopped last weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor its part, the state has said it had to take such drastic action to comply with the Affordable Care Act, which requires funding be halted when there are \u2018credible allegations of fraud,\u2019\u201d the board\u2019s new editorial<\/a> states. \u201cOK, except the language also gives the state the option of not doing so if officials believe there is \u2018good cause\u2019 for several reasons, including jeopardizing access to services.\u201d<\/p>\n

Such a basic statement of fact might have made a difference four years ago. Now it\u2019s too late. A news organization that is called to be prophetic instead aided and abetted a tragedy.<\/p>\n

I wrote last year<\/a> that Martinez owes New Mexicans an apology for devastating our Medicaid-funded behavioral health system. The Journal owes an apology for enabling her to do it.<\/p>\n

\n
\n

Heath Haussamen<\/a>\u00a0is NMPolitics.net\u2019s editor and publisher. Agree with his opinion? Disagree? We welcome your views. Learn about submitting your own commentary\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When government acts destructively, journalists have a duty to question, to dig, to find truth and speak it. Some of us did. The Albuquerque Journal’s editorial board did the opposite.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":383420,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192,10],"tags":[117,134,3281,107,208],"class_list":["post-383154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","category-haussamen-columns","tag-health-care","tag-media","tag-medicaid-freeze","tag-roundhouse","tag-susana-martinez"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383154","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=383154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383154\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/383420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=383154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=383154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=383154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}