With days left, amended interstate medical compact bill advances to full Senate

SANTA FE — An interstate medical compact bill is moving on to the full Senate, though with substantial changes advocates fear will deter its purpose.

House Bill 243 seeks to have New Mexico join the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact, creating streamlined physician licensing with participating states. Around 40 other states are part of the pact.

The Senate Judiciary Committee passed the legislation 5-1 on Wednesday, with chair Joseph Cervantes, D-Las Cruces, voting against it. No Republican committee members were present.

The hourslong discussion resulted in a heavily amended bill, with some changes made despite opposition by the bill sponsor and a few committee members.

Fred Nathan of Think New Mexico, a local think tank advocating for the interstate compacts, said the changes will ultimately cause a national compact commission to bar New Mexico from joining the medical compact—since the amendments are so different from what other states agreed to in the compact.

“By substantively rewriting HB243, the Senate Judiciary Committee effectively ensured that New Mexico will not be allowed to join the 41 states in the compact,” he said.

This is one of about 10 bills related to interstate health care compacts. The other compacts include those for counseling, psychology, dentists, and emergency medical services, though prospects are dim for the passage of all the compact bills with just days left in the legislative session.

The committee discussion Wednesday evening featured back-and-forth debate between committee members and bill sponsors and experts, at times touching on what Cervantes called “picky” matters like where periods and semicolons should or shouldn’t be.

That’s in addition to a brief conversation the committee had earlier this week, when legislators agreed to hold off on voting on the bill to try to compromise on changes.

Sen. Katy Duhigg, D-Albuquerque, one of the committee’s multiple attorneys, told the Journal then that she had many detail-oriented and legal questions around the bill. She and Rep. Marian Matthews, D-Albuquerque, the sponsor of the bill, both came back to Senate Judiciary with a slew of proposed changes.

Amendments from Duhigg and Cervantes that the committee ultimately approved “torpedoed” the bill, Nathan said.

“Sadly, this means that many New Mexicans with serious illnesses will continue to have to travel to other states to access care,” he said.

Earlier Wednesday, more than a dozen chambers of commerce from around New Mexico sent a letter to legislative leadership and the governor urging approval of the compact bills.

“Passing these bills is the single most important step that lawmakers can take right now to begin alleviating the state’s health care worker shortage,” the letter stated.

The legislation still needs to pass the full Senate and then, again, the House—since the Senate made changes to it—before landing on the governor’s desk. The session ends Saturday at noon.