State strikes deal with Ariz. provider
Valle del Sol has entered agreement with Governor’s Office to continue providing behavioral health services
An Arizona behavioral health care company that expanded into New Mexico in 2013 during Gov. Susana Martinez’s shake-up of substance abuse and mental health services has struck a deal with her administration to remain in New Mexico.
Just two months after announcing that it planned to leave, Valle del Sol entered into an agreement March 2 to continue providing services in several Northern New Mexico communities, President and CEO Kurt Sheppard said Friday.
News of the agreement emerged Friday after a state official responded to inquiries from with a terse, undated company news release.
The deal is the latest development in a period of uncertainty and disruption in goverment-supported behavioral health programs that began when the Martinez administration cut off Medicaid funds for New Mexico providers because of fraud allegations.
The state Attorney General’s Office has since cleared all 15 New Mexico companies of any criminal wrongdoing. But many of the accused New Mexico providers remain out of business, and 10 of them are suing the state, claiming due-process violations.
New Mexico provided Valle del Sol with some $2 million in startup costs when it became one of five Arizona companies in 2013 that took over services from New Mexico providers.
In an interview late Friday, Sheppard declined to disclose any financial terms terms of the latest agreement.
“We don’t share contract information,” Sheppard said. “We never have — not going to start.”
Kyler Nerison, spokesman for the state Human Services Department, did not respond to questions about whether the state provided Valle del Sol with additional financial incentives to remain in New Mexico.
Sheppard said the four insurance companies the state pays to manage New Mexico’s Medicaid program were involved in the agreement. But he would not say whether any of those companies offered Valle del Sol any incentives to remain in New Mexico.
Valle del Sol agreed to allow state officials to hire a consultant to help the company “become more efficient as far as providing services,” Sheppard added. Valle del Sol will pay the consultant, but the state has not selected one yet, he said.
The $2 million in startup costs the state paid to Valle del Sol in 2013 was a part of the at least $24 million the state paid to the five Arizona companies to take over operations from New Mexico behavioral health care companies.
Three of the Arizona nonprofits have since left the state.
Sheppard says Valle del Sol now serves more than 2,000 patients from locations in Española, Bernalillo, Los Lunas, Grants, Moriarty, Taos and Raton with more than 100 employees.
Sheppard said he felt the company would have “failed” those communities if it departed.
“We never got into this wanting to — three-and-ahalf years down the road — have to return these services and leave these people without anything,” he said. “So having to confront that feels like failing.”