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 group that oversees how the state’s behavioral health services are administered has decided not put the four-year $1 billion contract out to bid just yet.
The New Mexico Behavorial Health Collaborative’s decision Tuesday wasn’t a total surprise. A meeting last month of the Collaborative revealed that support was muted for going out for a new contract so soon after the current deal was inked with the current contractor, Optum Health
That was the overall sense among those who spoke at a series of public hearings around the state in recent months, state officials have said.
But the Collaborative’s recommendation Tuesday to keep Optum on wasn’t absolute. The agency left open the possibility of going out for a new contract in the near future.
“The Collaborative also recommends the issue be re-discussed in six months or so when details about National Health Care Reform and Medicaid changes are clearer in reference to mental health and substance abuse services,” according to a news release issued by the Collaborative on Tuesday afternoon.
The Collaborative’s recommendation now goes to Gov. Bill Richardson who nearly five months ago directed the Collaborative to put together a new request for proposals in order to re-bid the state’s contract that manages how services to the mentally ill and those struggling with substance abuse are administered.
Richardson’s January announcement came only seven months into the troubled tenure of the Optum.
Optum took over the state’s four-year, behavioral health contract in July 2009, replacing Value Options. But Optum’s performance quickly failed to live up to state officials’ expectations, especially after it was discovered that hundreds of providers statewide had to wait up to several months to get paid for services already rendered.
The problem was Optum Health’s electronic claims management system, which the company touted as a way to promptly pay nonprofits and others working with the mentally ill and those struggling with substance abuse. The system failed under the crush of real-world use soon after it went live July 1, 2009; the volume of invoices and claims that flooded the system were much greater than the test sample of claims the state used to conduct its readiness review.
Optum has since improved its performance, at least with many providers, according to some.
