New Mexico AG seeks investigation into First Choice Community Healthcare

SANTA FE — Attorney General Raúl Torrez is asking the state Department of Health to investigate allegations of mismanagement at an organization that operates nine community health centers in New Mexico.

In a letter issued this week, Torrez urged Health Secretary Patrick Allen to examine the allegations and, if warranted, take steps to help First Choice Community Healthcare avoid insolvency and continue serving tens of thousands of patients.

“The information provided to my office paints a dire picture,” Torrez told Allen and other top health officials.

An attorney for First Choice, however, said the AG’s letter is “factually flawed” and filled with inaccuracies about the organization’s work.

In fact, attorney Lorna Wiggins said, First Choice is on track this year to complete 8% more patient visits than in 2022 and will be adding seven new providers in coming weeks for medical, dental and behavioral health care.

“Correcting issues that have long-plagued FCCH will take time,” Wiggins said in a statement to the Journal. “At first blush, it is ironic that FCCH’s efforts to address those issues are also subject of criticism by the attorney general.”

First Choice is a nonprofit community health system with locations in Albuquerque, Belen, Los Lunas and Edgewood.

In the two-page letter, Torrez, a Democrat elected last year, said his office had “received information that raises grave concerns about the operation of First Choice Community Healthcare,” including deficient management and fiscal irresponsibility.

Employees, he said, have reported the organization suffers from a “retaliatory” board of directors. Providers told his office, Torrez said, that the board has terminated chief executives who push back against micromanagement and that the organization has gone through at least five CEOs in three years,

Layoffs, meanwhile, have eroded the workforce and contributed to an unsustainable reduction in frontline personnel, Torrez said, citing employee reports.

“Further, the apparent financial management problems at FCCH are reaching a tipping point,” he said, “with immediate concerns about making payroll. Insolvency appears to be the current trajectory.”

Torrez said the group provides vital health care to 50,000 patients and any interruption in services would add stress to an “already-overburdened system” of care.

The Department of Health, he said, is empowered by state law to appoint facility monitors or impose temporary managers if First Choice isn’t in compliance with regulations. The department could also pursue court approval to act as a “receiver” — a manager or trustee of sorts — to take control of health facilities, Torrez said.

“A health care crisis of this magnitude warrants the department’s intervention,” Torrez said, “and my office stands ready to assist the department to ensure that FCCH and its patients continue to receive comprehensive and critical health care.”

But Wiggins said the letter contains inaccuracies about First Choice Community Healthcare’s operations.

“Unfortunately,” she said, “the foundation of the Attorney General’s letter is so factually flawed that it cannot be adequately addressed without engaging in the time-consuming job of obtaining the source and basis of the attorney general’s allegations and opinions.”

The back-and-forth comes as New Mexico policymakers weigh strategies for making health care more accessible in the state.