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.
In the latest round of what one commissioner described as “musical chairs” at the state Insurance Division, acting superintendent Craig Dunbar was replaced Thursday.
The Public Regulation Commission (PRC) unanimously appointed Johnny Montoya as the new acting superintendent. Montoya will also continue to serve as PRC chief of staff until July 6, when Michael Rivera will take that position.
It was the third change in leadership since early May, when PRC commissioners began to exert more control over the Division’s regulation of health insurance rates. The PRC has formed a search committee to identify candidates for the Insurance Superintendent position, during which time a series of PRC staffers have stepped into the position on an interim basis. Montoya is expected to hold the job at least until August.
State law requires the insurance superintendent to have been a New Mexico resident for at least three years. Dunbar returned to New Mexico just a year ago, after living out of state for several years.
Commissioners were concerned that a legal challenge of Dunbar’s appointment could derail efforts to reconsider the Division’s controversial approval of a Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Mexico health insurance rate hike in April.
Blue Cross Blue Shield NM has threatened to sue the PRC over its order that the rate hike approval be vacated and reexamined in public hearings.
“The Commission didn’t want to provide Blue Cross with any cracks to insert their crowbar,” Commissioner Jason Marks told The Independent. “Commissioners … all agree it’s too important and needs to be decided on the merits, not on a technicality.”
Before assuming the interim superintendent position, Dunbar had been PRC Chairman David King‘s executive assistant. Montoya is married to King’s cousin, state Rep. Rhonda King.
Musical chairs
Montoya will be the fourth man to hold the office since Morris “Mo” Chavez’s May 4 resignation in the face of policyholders’ and commissioners’ outrage over his approval of the 21.3 percent Blue Cross Blue Shield NM rate hike.
Deputy Insurance Superintendent Tom Rushton briefly took the helm but resigned after being ordered by the Commission to vacate the rate hike, which he had helped negotiate.
Immediately after Dunbar was replaced as acting superintendent Thursday, he was appointed Deputy Insurance Superintendent, a position carrying no statutory residence requirements, to replace outgoing deputy Rushton.
“It was an attractive move for me because the deputy position is permanent,” Dunbar said.
Montoya will likely re-appoint Dunbar Friday as the Blue Cross rate hike case hearing officer, Dunbar said.
Only Marks voted against Dunbar’s appointment as deputy insurance superintendent.
“Craig Dunbar’s shown a willingness to work hard these past few weeks but I believe we need somebody with a broader and deeper base of experience to fill the key role Tom Rushton’s been filling at the Insurance Division,” Marks told The Independent.
