Crisis in medical care is around the corner

As a private orthopedic surgery group in the Four Corners area, we are honored to serve the wonderful people of New Mexico. Unfortunately, the future is grim for health care in New Mexico because of a major crisis on the horizon in 2024.

During 2021, the state Legislature enacted House Bill 75, which increased the malpractice liability cap for private physicians, surgery centers and hospitals. While a temporary hold, House Bill 11, was created due to concerns of how HB 75 would impact the overall delivery of health care, this stay expires at the end of this year.

At the start of 2024, the change in malpractice caps will increase to $4 million and will escalate rapidly to $6 million by 2027. When this happens, private physicians and surgery centers in New Mexico likely will not be able to obtain malpractice insurance to cover the increased caps.

The anticipated fallout is that physician offices and surgery centers will close across the state, including Four Corners Ambulatory Surgery Center. If that occurs, patients in San Juan County and neighboring counties needing care for orthopedic, ophthalmologic, plastic surgery, urology and ENT conditions will need to travel to Albuquerque to receive those services. That assumes there will be physicians in Albuquerque to provide such treatment.

Currently, New Mexico ranks among the worst five states to practice medicine by multiple measures. For example, New Mexico physicians pay a mandatory gross receipts tax on services rendered, a hidden double tax that cannot be passed on to the patient. Additionally, a high percentage of patients have Medicaid and Medicare as insurance. They reimburse at a much lower rate than commercial insurance.

Furthermore, malpractice premiums are at an all-time high and are becoming more expensive each year. Many physicians find that it is difficult to justify staying in New Mexico when neighboring states are much more favorable from a medical malpractice standpoint. Not surprisingly, since 2017, New Mexico has lost over 700 physicians, and our state is well below the benchmarks for number of physicians per population.

Fortunately, a new measure is being discussed in the Legislature that would eliminate the classification of private physicians and private outpatient health care facilities as hospitals.

Should Senate Bill 296 pass — it was tabled last week but must be revived — private practices and outpatient surgery centers will remain open in 2024 and access to health care in New Mexico will be preserved. There still will be a need to eliminate GRTs on medical services and raise Medicaid reimbursement rates, but the major crisis will be averted.

Once again, we need SB 296 to pass to protect access to health care in New Mexico. We encourage all citizens to contact our state senators, representatives and the Governor’s Office, particularly those in the Legislature’s leadership, as many of our local representatives already support this action.