Memorial Medical Center criticized as city, county mull contract

Administrators of southern New Mexico’s largest hospital slammed a recent NBC News story about access to its cancer care and parried questions around possible violations of Memorial Medical Center’s lease with local governments during a two-day tour of public meetings.

NBC’s investigation highlighted a dozen people who said they’d been denied treatment at MMC because they did not have health insurance or were covered by a provider that the for-profit hospital did not accept. According to the agreement between the hospital and local governments, MMC is required to provide care to people regardless of their ability to pay for some services.

John Harris, the hospital's CEO, denied there was any breach of its lease and said the NBC story contained “a number of inaccuracies and misinformation.”

“What has been published is not reflective of how our hospital cares for patients or how it contributes to our community,” Harris, who did not agree to an interview with NBC, told the Las Cruces City Council on June 11.

NBC News told the Bulletin on June 12 that it stands by its reporting. Meanwhile, the article has forced MMC to defend itself before Doña Ana County commissioners and the Las Cruces City Council, who raised questions about the hospital’s compliance with the agreement.

What is the agreement, and why is it in question?

MMC is a for-profit hospital operated by Lifepoint Health and owned by private equity firm Apollo Global Management.

Doña Ana County and the city of Las Cruces have a 40-year lease with MMC that stipulates MMC must maintain certain services to stay in compliance. Two of those stipulations are in question.

First, MMC must provide “treatment of indigent patients (those unable to pay the full cost of healthcare services rendered to them).” The hospital has said it remains in compliance with this stipulation.

In 2016, hospital staff verbally informed the county and city that cancer treatment would not be covered as part of this, according to the NBC News’ reporting. The investigation also noted that the hospital had previously relied on written notice for such things.

Second, MMC is required to maintain a behavioral health unit.

MMC Chief Operating Officer Mary Armijo said MMC suspended its behavioral health unit from November 2022 to August 2, 2023. Armijo told the city council that MMC closed the unit because the hospital lacked staff.

Armijo said the burnout of mental health workers and a long road to becoming licensed to work in the field delayed the reopening.

“We have stabilized that service,” Armijo said.

Council, Commission exert oversight

No councilor or commissioner explicitly said they believed MMC had breached the lease agreement. However, several raised questions and pushed back against hospital administrators when they neglected to answer questions.

City Councilor Johana Bencomo asked Harris and the other hospital administrators for more information about their revenue and quality assurance surveys. They agreed to provide that information to the council at a later date.

Commissioners Christopher Schaljo-Hernandez and Manuel Sanchez said they were disappointed MMC did not have that information available when administrators presented to the county a day later. But again, administrators promised to provide that information to the county at a later date. 

Schaljo-Hernandez also suggested that the city and county hold a joint work session to hash out some of the unresolved issues and information. Commissioner Susana Chaparro suggested that the work session require MMC to field questions from the public.  

A date for that possible joint session has not been scheduled.

MMC responds to NBC News report

On June 5, NBC News published a story based on documents and interviews with former patients and clinicians who “described a facility in which both insured and uninsured patients requiring an array of treatments were regularly met with denials of care or demands for up-front payments.” The story suggested the denials may violate the hospital’s lease for the public land on which it sits.

In meetings before the city council and county commissioners, representatives of the hospital pushed back on the reporting, and on Wednesday the hospital issued the following statement to the Bulletin:

“Memorial Medical Center has been a dedicated member of the Las Cruces and Doña Ana County community for more than 70 years. We are disappointed that our team’s commitment to caring for patients, our efforts to ensure families’ and individuals’ access to care, and our significant contributions to healthcare across our region have been portrayed so inaccurately. We are proud of our record and will be doing what we can to address any concerns among our patients and community directly and through our actions in the weeks ahead.”