By Daniel J. Chacón, The Santa Fe New Mexican
As New Mexico grapples with a shortage of physicians, lawmakers have voiced frustration over what they describe as a broken health care system in the state.
Doctors themselves have sounded the alarm, some advocating for medical malpractice reform and others taking to social media to amplify the urgency of the situation.
Now, patients will be handed the microphone.
Newly formed nonprofit Patient-Led NM, which emphasizes the importance of patient stories in driving policy change, is holding a series of summits across New Mexico to elevate their voices.
“The reason that our environment in New Mexico is not conducive to health care right now is the policy decisions that have been made,” Annie Jung, executive director of the New Mexico Medical Society, one of the nonprofit’s founders, said in a telephone interview Monday.
“We are hoping to focus the future on changing the policies so that our health environment is better and more conducive to access, quality care and putting patients back at the center of the conversation,” she said.
The push for policy change comes ahead of a legislative effort planned for next year’s 30-day session to bring New Mexico into interstate licensing compacts for doctors and other medical professionals.
Republican lawmakers and some Democrats are also advocating for changing the state’s medical malpractice laws, which many doctors say are driving physicians out of state.
“There’s a lot of policies that could be improved upon,” Jung said. “Medical malpractice is at the center. That’s the linchpin, so that has to be fixed.”
Patient-Led NM was established earlier this year. In addition to hosting a series of health care summits, the group launched a digital advertising campaign and set up a website — patientlednm.org — where patients, as well as providers, can share their stories.
“Responses have been steady and strong, from parents worried about finding specialty care for their children to patients sharing experiences of long wait times or a pregnant person traveling hours just to see an OB/GYN,” Jung said. “These are the real-life obstacles New Mexicans face every single day.”
Other founding organizations of the new nonprofit include the New Mexico Hospital Association, Sacramento Mountains Foundation and the Greater Albuquerque Medical Association.
Their initiative is designed to promote what Troy Clark, president and CEO of the hospital association, called the “patient perspective” of New Mexico’s challenges with access to medical care while also shining a light on issues the organizations believe New Mexico needs to address.
“Medical malpractice, our taxing policies, the compacts that are out there, the technicalities of those get very, very challenging,” he said.
“The everyday person doesn’t think about those issues when they’re trying to get an appointment with a physician or when they’re having to be sent out of state or long distances to get care,” Clark said. “While we want people to be aware of what those issues are so they get addressed, we [also] want them to have a voice.”
John Wheeler, CEO of the Sacramento Mountains Foundation, described the effort as grassroots.
“This movement is led by patients, and that’s what makes it so powerful,” he said in a statement. “When individuals share their stories, it becomes impossible to ignore the real impact of the state-level policy decisions.”
The summits will bring together patients, health care leaders and policymakers to focus on what organizers say are “practical, evidence-driven reforms.”
“Each summit will spotlight lived experiences while opening dialogue on how malpractice reform, reimbursement adjustments, and GRT (gross receipts tax) relief can collectively improve access to care,” a news release states.
Jung said the end goal is for New Mexico to have the health care it deserves.
“We all have a story,” she said. “Some are more dramatic than others. Some are more life-threatening than others. Some are annoyances. Some are true life-and-death scenarios. But everybody … has at least one story of problems accessing timely, quality care.”