Happy Dollars: Peter said he had a couple of happy dollars for Jerry Ouzts who has been taking club minutes for us as well as being secretary of the board and for the foundation. Normally the secretary does not take club minutes; Ray added his happy dollars in agreement.
Art thanked everyone for the lovely demotion party.

 

Ray introduced Dan Otero as our speaker. Dan started by saying he was sure everyone had heard what was going on with HMS so part of his intent was to demystify some of what was happening. He began with a series of positive questions with the answer being HMS. He said we had heard the bad stuff and he wanted to respond with the good. He began with a brief history of HMS. He stated that if he didn’t correct the record, we were putting one of the core lifelines of our community at risk. HMS has a total of 17 locations and is one of the regions largest employers with about 210 staff members. HMS is a federally qualified health center, which means that no one is turned away because of their inability to pay. They are contracted with 26 different payers, and everyone who works for them must be credentialed with everyone of those payers. They have worked hard to secure the best technology,
compliance with their billing system and to secure payment as rapidly as possible. Their universal data results (HURSA) for 2024 were just received. Their collection rate is 71 percent of billed charges, which is better than 81 percent of other New Mexico health centers.

 

Since 2010 HMS has doubled in size, which was due to the board of directors’ desire to extend access and services which were funded by the Affordable Care Act. What really matters are the patients. Each year over 14,000 patients see them for medical,
dental, and behavioral health care. As a result, chronic disease management and child immunizations have improved, more women are getting mammograms and Pap smears through referrals from their HMS care providers, ER visits have been significantly reduced. HMS has been significant in dealing with behavioral health issues in particular opioid and alcohol abuse and crises response. They send out patient surveys every month and receive about 500 back with over 95 percent saying they are completely satisfied. Complaints are tracked and answered as required by the Center for Medicare/Medicaid Services (CMS) regulations. Finally, they maintain key institutional accreditation to verify quality and compliance. All centers are accredited as patient
centered medical homes. They are heavily regulated for patient safety. Senior services at senior centers began in Lordsburg in 2007 and in 2017 they were approached by Grant County to run the senior center here. About 82 percent of the funding
comes from federal and state funds. Another part of the funding comes from contributions. All municipalities and government agencies are sent a letter each year to ask if they are going to
be able to contribute. Once they receive that information, it is reported to the Non-Metro Area Agency on Aging (The Triple A); that is who they are contacted through. Beginning in 2023, soaring food costs and operational costs have outpaced the funding. Recently, some of the municipalities that had contributed to the funding of the senior centers notified HMS that they would not be able to continue the same level of funding. The financial management questions recently raised may have arisen from the fact that the HMS budget continued to show the full contributions by the municipalities, even though it was known that the funding would not be forthcoming. HMS was aware of the fact that these costs had to be covered even in the absence of full funding from the municipalities, and that is why the budget continued to show the contributions in full. In 2025 HMS had to make the difficult decision to no longer fund these centers. The Triple A is looking for a new provider to contract with. Dan disputed Triple A’s statement of alleged financial mismanagement by HMS. His rebuttal was in the Silver City Daily Press and on the HMS website. In a meeting with state legislators, legislators reaffirmed their commitment to seniors getting healthy meals and other social services. HMS will assure continuity of services through August 9. Regarding the issue of providers leaving, Dan stated that New Mexico is in a health care
provider crisis. Nearly 800 physicians have left since 2022. Providers are not only leaving the State but also their professions. They have been able, however, to recruit high quality staff.
They have received several grants and are in the process of starting a mobile crisis response team and to purchase a mobile health care unit and an oral health care unit for underserved
communities. In addition, the residency health program will begin again in conjunction with UNM and Gila Regional.
HMS is fiscally strong, stable and ready to serve the southwest frontier for years to come.

After a question and answer period, Ray adjourned the meeting.