I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
The state Human Services Division (HSD) and Attorney General’s office will sign a new memo of understanding about data sharing and the coordination of Medicaid fraud investigations, officials at both agencies told The Independent Monday.
The AG’s office claimed in 2008 and 2009 that HSD and the state Health Department had withheld Medicaid data from investigators.
The federal Medicaid Integrity Group had found similar problems during a 2008 inspection of HSD records, The Independent reported in February. HSD manages the state’s Medicaid program.
“We are awaiting a signed copy of the memo of understanding from the AG’s office,” HSD spokeswoman Betina McCracken said.
Once it arrives, Cabinet Secretary Kathryn “Katie” Falls will then sign the agreement for HSD, McCracken said.
The current memo of understanding between the AG’s office and HSD is more than five years old.
The AG’s office wanted its own direct access to Medicaid data, AG spokesman Phil Sisneros told The Independent in January. Under the existing agreement, AG Medicaid Fraud & Elder Abuse Division (MFEAD) investigators must submit a data request form to HSD, Sisneros said. On “many” occasions, requested data was withheld or “sanitized,” according to 2008 and 2009 MFEAD reports to the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees Medicaid.
“(S)ince MFEAD seems happy enough with it to agree to sign it, I would assume any major issues have been worked out,” Sisneros said Monday.
Neither agency offered details about the new data sharing agreement, but The Independent will be provided a copy of the agreement once it has been signed, McCracken said.
Sen. Tim Keller, D-Albuquerque, led the state Senate’s attempt to override Governor Bill Richardson’s 2009 pocket veto of SB 531, a bill that would have forced the HSD and other executive branch agencies to share Medicaid data and other program data with the Legislative Finance Committee. The Senate voted Feb. 8 to override the veto, but the house did not.
