State awards $5.4M as part of rural health care fund

Addiction is “very prevalent” in Roswell, said Trent Carter, who owns and runs the local treatment clinic Renew Health.

“There’s a lot of folks that are struggling,” said Carter, who opened the clinic three years ago.

But Carter said other rural New Mexico towns are also grappling with high rates of addiction, pushing him to open a slate of new clinics in the southern portion of the state.

Renew Health is one of four organizations receiving a share of $5.4 million, state officials said this week, part of $46 million approved by state legislators this year for the Rural Health Care Delivery Fund.

“Every New Mexican deserves access to quality health care close to home,” Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “Rural health care providers are lifelines in their communities. This funding is a bold investment in the health and dignity of our rural communities, ensuring no New Mexican is left behind.”

Three other entities are getting money, including Santo Domingo Pueblo, which will use $2 million to expand behavioral health and primary care services, state officials said.

Clovis-based Multicultural Evaluation and Consultation Associates will use $1.6 million to enhance maternal health care coordination in Curry, Chaves, Doña Ana, Lea, Quay and Roosevelt counties. Meridian Behavioral Health, based in Albuquerque, will expand reentry services for children in state custody in Cibola, San Miguel, Sandoval, Torrance and Valencia counties with $759,141 from the fund.

The Rural Health Care Delivery Fund, established last year with an initial $80 million, aids health care projects in counties with fewer than 100,000 people. Championed by Lujan Grisham during the 2023 session, 52 organizations received a share from that pool of money.

Pumped with more cash during this year’s session, the fund has so far received 77 applicants, New Mexico Health Care Authority spokeswoman Marina Piña said.

She said the state will announce more awardees next month, noting that the first four approved this week were part of an expedited group called “access champions.” The funding as part of the second cohort will run through June 2027.

Carter, a nurse practitioner, said the funding will help open Renew Health clinics in Alamogordo, Clovis and Hobbs over the next several months. He also has plans for more clinics in Artesia and Socorro.

“It doesn’t matter which corner of the state you go to, you’re going to find these same prevalent issues (of addiction),” Carter said. “Down here in the southern part of the state, there seems to be very few resources and this is where I’m located, so trying to make an impact here and then spreading it across the entire state is the goal.”