LAS VEGAS — Finding ways to recruit physicians and minimizing the number of patients that are flown out of Las Vegas for care were two of the main concerns expressed to Attorney General of New Mexico Raúl Torrez on April 15 by local health administrators.
Organized by the Las Vegas New Mexico Community Foundation, the roundtable discussion brought Torrez and those in the health field under the same roof – the foundation’s new offices at 606 Douglas Ave.
Torrez said he wanted to hear from leaders in rural communities about the challenges they are facing, and noted that there are issues within healthcare that he is specifically concerned about.
“There have been some things specifically within the healthcare space that I’m concerned about, some of which relate to pretty dramatic policy shifts at a national level,” Torrez said. He said his office has joined other Democratic attorneys general from across the country in filing lawsuits against the Trump administration for actions that have affected veterans, SNAP benefits, healthcare benefits and emergency preparedness.
“I have an obligation to try and make sure that our citizens … have access to the resources and programs they’re legally entitled to,” Torrez said.
Helen Ballantyne, chief executive officer of Alta Vista Regional Hospital, said there is a need for an increase in quality mental healthcare in Las Vegas.
“One of the challenges, locally, is that we have a lot of mental health patients who are frequenting the emergency department (and) not getting their needs met in our community,” Ballantyne said. She said that, despite the New Mexico Behavioral Health Institute being in Las Vegas, its resources cannot be easily accessed due to it being a state hospital.
“They have to accommodate patients from throughout New Mexico,” Ballantyne said. “We cannot access the behavioral health resources that are here in Las Vegas.”
She said these patients are then transferred outside of Las Vegas, sometimes outside of the state of New Mexico, for care.
Ballantyne also expressed the need to establish a rural residency program to help recruit physicians to the area.
This was an idea echoed by physician and Guadalupe County Commissioner Randal Brown.
Speaking to Torrez, Brown suggested conveying the benefit of a rural residency training program to the Legislature.
Matthew Probst, a local physician and community health advocate, mentioned SB 380, which was part of the recent Legislative Session.
SB 380 never made it to the Senate floor as it did not get past the Senate Finance Committee, Probst said. However, a rural training program project which is a component of the bill did get funded, he said. The project will create a rural training program via the University of New Mexico’s family residency program. The hybrid residency would allow for someone to be a resident of the UNM program as well as at a rural location. The pilot rural town for the program will be Silver City, Probst said.
“It’s a pilot,” Probst said. “If it works, it’s going to benefit the entire state. … Should that pilot be successful … (Las Vegas) is well positioned to be next in line since we have already been working on this project for a year in our residency planning grant.”
Probst also noted HB 014, the Earned Income Tax Credit also known as the Tax Package, which was vetoed by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham during the latest Legislative Session.
There were various components to HB 014, Probst said, and one of them was a bill that would have waived gross receipts tax for providers that care for Medicaid patients.
Elmo Baca, executive director for the Community Foundation, said he believed Torrez was interested in taking part in the roundtable discussion to learn more about how changes at the federal level might impact the area’s healthcare.
“I think that the attorney general is concerned about the impacts of changes of federal policy and funding, and how that could affect rural healthcare in New Mexico,” Baca said.
Aside from the information Torrez gathered from the meeting, Baca said the event was also an opportunity for various healthcare providers to interact with one another.
“I think the meeting was also an opportunity for some of our healthcare providers, like Alta Vista, Sunrise Clinic, Presbyterian Health Service and the Anchorum Foundation to have a dialogue with each other,” Baca said. “It seems … they were able to compare notes and (get) a broader overview of the issues that we face.”
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