For more than a year, with the intent of safeguarding health care, lawmakers prepared and meticulously crafted a bill aimed at bolstering oversight of hospital mergers and private equity takeovers in New Mexico. Regardless, the bill failed to get through its second committee in the state legislature on Saturday.
has been in the making since the two years ago between and , an Iowa-based private health care company.
The bill was defeated in the Senate Judiciary Committee by a narrow vote of 5 to 4, as Senators (D-Do帽a Ana) and (D-Bernalillo), the committee鈥檚 chair and vice chair, joined with their Republican colleagues in voting against it.
Cervantes said he doesn鈥檛 like government overreach, and considers interfering with business transactions like mergers and acquisitions beyond the scope of government work. He said when businesses come to a deal they do so with a 鈥渃lear idea of reducing costs.鈥�
鈥淭hey want to eliminate duplication, and they typically want to streamline the services. That's typically why businesses do that, so they can increase their profit,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hat's the whole purpose behind it.鈥�
But show when profit is the main focus in health care, , either by , , or for those services.
That鈥檚 exactly why the bill鈥檚 sponsor, (D-Bernalillo), said she worked so hard to craft a bill she thought had a good chance of making it to the governor鈥檚 desk.
She said she spent a year discussing the bill and negotiating with the general public, patient advocates and activists, as well as with industry leaders, large and small health care providers, and more.
鈥淭here were no concessions on the other side, I continually ended up negotiating against myself, taking out more and more and making more and more changes to satisfy their concerns, and then the line would move, and then we would make another change, and the line would move,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 don't think they were ever negotiated in good faith. I think they planned on coming here and killing this the entire time. I think a year of my time was essentially wasted.鈥�
She said SB14 was meant to replace last year鈥檚 , which was a temporary oversight bill set to expire later this year, giving the sponsors time to craft a more comprehensive bill.
鈥淪enate Bill 15 was a Band-Aid. It has no enforcement, it has no transparency,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t was the absolute bare minimum to have in place while we went through this stakeholder engagement process.鈥�
This year鈥檚 bill would have by the Superintendent of Insurance first, which would determine if further more comprehensive reviews were necessary. Any hospitals that were approved for purchase would have had to submit annual reports detailing any services or staff positions cut or reduced, and it contained whistleblower protections.
Private equity companies in recent years, with companies, oftentimes from out of state, looking to make a profit by taking over struggling hospitals, streamlining services, and then selling them at a profit. Duhigg pointed out that oversight and enforcement of these sorts of transactions, and that oversight occurs in many industries.
鈥淭hat is something that we do all the time,鈥� she said. 鈥淭he reason that this is with the Superintendent of Insurance is because she already does this in the insurance context, under the Insurance Holding Act.鈥�
Opponents say SB14 went too far in its regulation and oversight. Julia Ruetten with the said she was speaking for all 47 member organizations when she pointed out what she called insufficient confidentiality protections and excessively long post-transaction oversight.
鈥淲e have an access to care crisis in our state, and anything that could deter or delay investment in sustaining and growing health care services, we must oppose,鈥� Ruetten said, 鈥渁nd we believe this bill will do just that.鈥�
Opponents also said the bill wasn鈥檛 clear enough in providing guidance for hospitals on how to properly approach a merger. Lobbyist for Presbyterian Healthcare Services, Larry Horan, said the bill lacks language on what would kick off a comprehensive review after a preliminary review, for example.
鈥淭here's no set criteria in the statute,鈥� he said. 鈥淪o we have no predictability as far as to know what we have to provide to have a good transaction that's going to be approved.鈥�
Also amongst the opponents were the New Mexico Medical Society, the New Mexico Association for Home and Hospice Care, and both the New Mexico and Greater Albuquerque Chambers of Commerce.
Now that the bill has failed, and SB15 will be sunsetting, there will be no official oversight of mergers and acquisitions in New Mexico health care, a state where , and which was listed as of future takeovers by the Private Equity Stakeholder Project.
Support for this coverage comes from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
