UNM community members in conversation after Tuesday's meeting adjourned (Photo by Anthony Fleg)

UNM community members in conversation after Tuesday's Community Coalition for Healthcare Access meeting adjourned (Photo by Anthony Fleg)

ALBUQUERQUE — In a simple room at East Central Ministries, using a bed-sheet as a makeshift screen, the Community Coalition for Healthcare Access (CCHA) held a public discussion Tuesday night regarding changes they feel University of New Mexico Hospitals need to make to improve access to care.

“As a coalition and community, we are not asking for a free ride. We are asking for fair prices, access to care, high quality services, and an end to medical debt,” began CCHA coordinator Carol Anda.

Community members, health professionals and elected officials voiced concerns over UNM’s recent statement that it will not allow undocumented residents of Bernalillo County to register for UNM Care, its safety-net insurance program for the indigent. Prior to this, CCHA leaders said that UNM officials had left the door open regarding coverage of this population, with the coalition and the Community Affairs Advisory Committee (CAAC) advocating for inclusion of all indigent residents of the county in the UNM Care program.

First-term state Rep. Eleanor Chavez, an Albuquerque Democrat, reminded the group that “UNM Hospitals forget that it is a public hospital, that its mission is to serve the residents of this county regardless of their ability to pay, regardless of their citizenship status.”

Chavez, who has been a part of CCHA since its inception eight years ago, pointed out the urgency of the matter.

“UNM is the only option for many people, and instead fully accepting this mission, it seems that the hospital’s leadership wants to run UNM Hospitals as a business,” she said.

In the last week, both CCHA and CAAC have written letters to the UNM Board of Regents expressing their concerns that their recommendations for change are not being heard by the hospital’s CEO Steve McKernan and the vice president for the UNM Health Sciences Center, Paul Roth.

The CAAC has requested a meeting with the regents, while CCHA is asking that barriers to service at the university hospitals be removed.

CAAC, a committee formed in 2005 to serve as an adviser to the leadership at the UNM Health Sciences Center, is a liaison to the larger community, bringing concerns of citizens and grassroots groups like CCHA to the university’s attention. CAAC’s letter on August 28 to Raymond Sanchez, president of the Board of Regents, expresses the group’s current discontent:

We feel that the wishes of the community constituents we represent have not been given an adequate hearing, and have been denied without appropriate response.

In addition to the issue of the undocumented, both CCHA and CAAC are concerned about the large number of UNM patients being sent to collections, the threat of “up-front” payments being proposed by the hospital, and the lack of attention given to the university’s obligations to Native American patients.

The latter stems from a 1952 contract that allowed UNM to build a hospital on pueblo land in exchange for guaranteed services to Native Americans.

Alma Olivas, a community member who sits on CAAC and who also helps lead CCHA, expressed frustration with the process of negotiating with UNM.

“It has been eight years since the coalition has been negotiating, and we are still on the same page. Our message is very simple — health care is a right and must be accessible to all. Every program that a public hospital offers should be open to all residents who pay taxes toward the hospital,” Olivas said.

Family medicine resident physician Jesse Barnes can see the effects of turning people away quite clearly.

“Earlier today, I saw a patient with newly diagnosed diabetes, and even though the patient has been living and working in this county for seven years, paying taxes that go toward UNM Care and the other programs of the hospital, she cannot get UNM Care,” Barnes said. He added, “The options I have in treating her diabetes are quite limited, and it is a struggle to keep patients like this from severe, very much preventable complications of their illnesses.”

UNM Hospitals has not responded publicly to the CAAC or CCHA letters, but is expected to do so before the Board of Regents meets on Sept. 29 at UNM’s Family Practice Clinic.

Meanwhile, Bernalillo County and UNM continues to maintain emergency funds for undocumented residents with serious and life-threatening acute conditions, but nothing beyond that.