New Mexico
New Mexico attorney general launches probe of patient care at private equity-run hospital
New Mexico’s attorney general announced an investigation Tuesday into Memorial Medical Center, the Las Cruces hospital operated by Lifepoint Health, to determine whether the facility, highlighted in a recent NBC News report, violated state laws by turning away indigent and low-income patients seeking care.
The attorney general, Raúl Torrez, said his office is examining Memorial’s patient policies for compliance with a state law and the hospital’s performance under the New Mexico statute governing provision of care to needy patients.
At the news conference announcing the investigation Tuesday, Torrez said he had just met with patients, as well as providers at Memorial, to discuss their concerns.
“It is apparent to me that the management of this facility has failed to place the well-being and safety and care of their patients in the proper place and in the proper priority,” he said. “It is apparent to me that decisions have been made from a standpoint that is seemingly motivated by profit, by maximizing the bottom line and without due respect and due regard to patients under their care.” He also warned hospital management not to retaliate against anyone speaking out about its practices.
An NBC News report last month described allegations that Memorial Medical Center turned away cancer patients under its operator, Lifepoint Health, which was acquired by Apollo Global Management, the New York-based private-equity firm. Physician records and interviews with 13 patients detailed denials of care by the hospital or demands of upfront payments to secure treatments.
Barbara Quarrell, a former nurse at Memorial, is one patient who said the hospital turned her down for care after she was diagnosed with cancer in 2022. She recounted her story at the attorney general’s announcement.
Quarrell told NBC News she is encouraged by the attorney general’s investigation. “It’s about time,” she said. “At Memorial, it’s all about the money; it’s no longer about the patients. Why are they even in health care if it’s not about patients?”
In a statement, a spokeswoman for the hospital said, “Memorial Medical Center was surprised to learn of this investigation by Attorney General Torrez during his press conference today. We remain committed to expanding access to care and being a good community partner in Las Cruces and Doña Ana County and will be cooperating fully with this investigation.”
Before publication and broadcast of the report in June, Memorial told NBC News it does not deny care, but two of its top officials called to apologize to two patients who had told NBC News that they were turned away.
A spokeswoman for Apollo did not respond to an email seeking comment.
Lifepoint Health, the operator of Memorial, oversees the country’s largest chain of mostly rural hospitals — 62 acute care facilities in 16 states. Lifepoint is a subject of two U.S. Senate inquiries, along with other health care companies owned by private equity, NBC News has reported. The investigations aim to assess the profits Apollo and other firms reaped in the deals and whether they harmed patients and clinicians. Apollo has said it is cooperating with the inquiries.
Although Lifepoint runs Memorial, the facility and the land it sits on are owned by the city of Las Cruces and Doña Ana County. Denying care to patients could violate the 40-year lease Memorial struck with the county and the city in 2004. The lease says the facility must generally continue providing care to “those unable to pay the full cost of healthcare services rendered to them.”
About 225,000 people live in Doña Ana County, the urban and rural region Memorial serves, and almost 15% have no health insurance, recent census figures show. About 23% of county residents live in poverty, compared with 11.5% nationwide.
One focus of the state investigation, Torrez said, is whether Memorial misrepresented its health care services for needy patients. The hospital’s most recent annual report to the community said: “Delivering care to all of our neighbors, regardless of their ability to pay, is foundational to our mission and our commitment to our community.”
Torrez is also investigating whether Memorial violated a New Mexico law governing financial assistance programs for patients. The Patients Debt Collection Protection Act requires hospitals to screen for financial assistance, he said, adding that “patients who are turned away without screening would constitute a violation of the law.” Some of the patients NBC News interviewed for the June report described being denied care without being screened to determine whether they could use financial assistance.
Before 2004, Memorial operated as a community nonprofit hospital. Under Lifepoint, Memorial is a for-profit entity and highly profitable. It charged 6.7 times its costs for care in 2021, according to the most recent figures available from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS. The average charged among for-profit hospitals nationwide is less than five times their costs, according to Ge Bai, professor of health policy and management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, who is based in Washington, D.C.
The CMS hospital comparison site confirms that Memorial’s Medicare costs per beneficiary are both higher than the national average and almost 20% higher than the state average.
Yolanda Diaz is a patient advocate at CARE Las Cruces, a nonprofit organization she founded that helps needy patients pay for health care and expenses. Diaz has been notifying county and city officials since 2021 that Memorial was turning away patients, a practice she said she found inhumane and unjust.
“I was disappointed that no one in Las Cruces and Doña Ana County leadership stepped forward to take needed action, but I had hope,” Diaz said in an email. “I believe the New Mexico Department of Justice launching an official investigation is the absolute best action course and I hope for disclosures to the public, needed change and justice.”
Hospital documents produced under open records requests show that Memorial’s written indigent care policy for years directed it to provide care to patients who were unable to pay the full costs of their treatments and discussed discounts or cost-sharing arrangements for people who met income criteria. That changed last year, five years after Apollo, the private-equity giant co-founded by Leon Black, bought Lifepoint, the records show.
Private-equity firms like Apollo have taken over much of the health care industry in recent years. The firms typically load debt onto the companies they buy, then cut costs to increase earnings and appeal to potential buyers later. Almost one-quarter of New Mexico’s hospitals are controlled by private-equity firms, according to a study by the Private Equity Stakeholder Project, a nonprofit operation that analyzes the private-equity industry’s impact on consumers.
The American Investment Council, the private-equity lobbying group, says the industry improves health care. But independent academic studies show private-equity firms’ involvement in the industry results in significant cost increases for patients and payers, such as Medicare. Lower quality of care has been associated with the firms’ investments in health care, research shows, including 10% higher mortality rates at nursing homes owned by private equity and more incidents of infections, blood clots and falls at hospitals.
New Mexico
14 indicted in alleged Permian Basin crude‑oil theft scheme spanning New Mexico and Texas, prosecutors say
A federal grand jury in Lubbock has indicted 14 people accused of stealing crude oil in eastern New Mexico and hauling it into Texas to resell at cut‑rate prices.
Prosecutors say the scheme targeted the Permian Basin’s vast production network, the oil‑rich region spanning southeastern New Mexico and West Texas that covers more than 86,000 square miles and accounts for the majority of U.S. crude oil production.
All 14 defendants are charged with conspiracy to transport stolen property across state lines, and several also face counts of interstate transportation and receipt, possession, or sale of stolen property, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas.
Indictment outlines alleged operation
Returned April 8, the indictment alleges the group stole crude oil in eastern New Mexico, some stored on U.S. government-leased land, and resold it to co‑conspirators at prices below the standard U.S. market benchmark.
Prosecutors say the conspirators transported the stolen oil into Texas for resale at a profit, knowing it was stolen.
Texas, New Mexico defendants identified by prosecutors
Texas defendants are James Darrell Reid, 65, and Randell Wayne Reid, 41, owners of Texas-based Reidco Enterprises and both of Electra – about 25 miles northwest of Wichita Falls and 115 miles from Fort Worth – along with Christopher Frederick Harris, 22, of Seminole, about 80 miles west of Midland.
The remaining 11 defendants are from Lovington, a southeastern New Mexico community of about 11,690 people, roughly 20 miles west of the Texas state line and squarely inside the Permian Basin.
They include:
- Louis George Edgett, 68;
- Brenden Floyd Strickland, 25;
- Sixto Herrera-Estebane, 43;
- Gyardo Gonzalez, 47;
- Jesus Martin Hernandez-Borja, 51;
- Diana Marquez Rojo, 45;
- Jose Luis Rojo, 49;
- Jose Mario Rivas-Mendoza, 37;
- Miguel A. Soto, 41;
- Tavares Montrail Cole, 48; and
- Danny Dale Brown Jr., 42.
Potential penalties outlined by DOJ
According to prosecutors, the defendants face up to five years in prison for conspiracy and up to 10 years per count for interstate transportation, possession, or sale of stolen property.
The investigation was conducted by the Bureau of Land Management, the FBI, the Texas Department of Public Safety’s Criminal Investigation Division, and sheriff’s offices in Lea and Eddy counties in New Mexico.
CBS News Texas will provide updates as additional information becomes available.
New Mexico
Governor establishes Energy Affordability and Grid Reliability Council – 13-member council designed to protect ratepayers, modernize the grid – Office of the Governor – Michelle Lujan Grisham
SANTA FE — Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham today signed an executive order establishing the New Mexico Energy Affordability and Grid Reliability Council to address the rising cost of electricity in a rapidly changing energy landscape.
The Council will convene state agency leaders, utility executives and experts in rural cooperative utilities, tribal energy, consumer advocacy, and energy policy and infrastructure to develop strategies for keeping energy affordable while ensuring the grid can meet the demands of a growing, modernizing New Mexico economy.
“At a time of dramatically rising energy prices, it’s imperative that we do everything we can to protect New Mexico ratepayers while ensuring abundant clean energy supply,” said Governor Lujan Grisham. “The experts I’ve appointed to the New Mexico Energy Affordability and Grid Reliability Council are well-positioned to make smart, insightful recommendations and I look forward to their findings.”
The Council will evaluate and recommend strategies across four interconnected areas:
- Ratepayer protection: Ensuring that large-load growth — including data centers and onshore manufacturing — does not disproportionately increase costs for residential, rural, tribal and small business customers.
- Grid modernization and reliability: Recommending rate designs and financing strategies that enable prudent infrastructure investment while minimizing long-term rate escalation.
- Clean energy progress: Advancing New Mexico’s net-zero goals under the Energy Transition Act by expanding zero-carbon generation and storage while maintaining affordable access.
- Permitting efficiency: Identifying opportunities to streamline and coordinate state and local permitting for electricity infrastructure — accelerating deployment of clean energy projects without compromising environmental review, tribal consultation, or regulatory safeguards.
The Council will deliver a final report — including legislative, regulatory and administrative recommendations — to the Governor and the Legislature by November 1, 2026.
The Council consists of 13 members representing state government, utilities, rural cooperatives, tribal communities and independent experts:
- Erin Taylor, acting secretary, Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department
- Rob Black, secretary, Economic Development Department
- Cholla Khoury, chief of staff, Public Regulation Commission
- Lynn Mostoller, executive director, Renewable Energy Transmission Authority
- Sunalei Stewart, deputy commissioner for operations, State Land Office
- Don Tarry, president and CEO, TXNM Energy (PNM)
- Kelly A. Tomblin, president and CEO, El Paso Electric
- Zoe Lees, regional vice president, regulatory policy, Xcel Energy
- Vince Martinez, CEO, New Mexico Rural Electric Cooperative Association
- Javier Bucobo, vice president of markets and regulatory affairs, Avangrid (grid infrastructure expert)
- Joseph Yar, attorney, Velarde & Yar (consumer/ratepayer advocate)
- Sandra Begay Keeto, retired, Sandia National Laboratories; member, Navajo Nation (tribal energy expert)
- Rep. Meredith Dixon, New Mexico House of Representatives, District 20 (energy policy expert)
The Council is administratively attached to the Department of Finance and Administration. Members will serve without compensation, other than per diem and mileage as permitted by law.
The executive order can be viewed here.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Republican candidate for governor Duke Rodriguez is suing Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham over her executive order that started universal free child care before a new law takes effect.
The governor enacted the program through executive order in November.
Lawmakers passed a universal child care law during the past session, but that law does not take effect until May 20.
Rodriguez says he objects to some of the rules and to how the governor started the program. The suit asks the Second Judicial District Court to prohibit further enforcement of any regulations tied to the program.
“You could understand an outgoing governor trying to do it for political capital, for expediency just to say, I’m first in the nation.” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez says he is confident he will win and that the rules he is challenging will be struck down.
“We also now have what we call pre emptive eligibility, which means you don’t even have to prove you’re eligible and you’re covered the moment you walk in,” Rodriguez said. “All of those things individually and collectively that have been proposed and changed probably invite fraud, waste and abuse and you know it.”
The governor’s office responds
The governor’s office sent a statement saying the program was properly implemented and that the governor is confident the lawsuit will be rejected.
A spokesperson for the governor sent KOB 4 the following statement:
“This lawsuit makes clear that Mr. Rodriguez has a fundamental misunderstanding how state government works. He states that ECECD did not have the authority to undergo rulemaking regarding universal childcare. They do. He states that ECECD did not have the funding to implement the program when they did their rulemaking. They did. That is why the program was operational in December – before the 2026 Legislative session started. Perhaps more importantly, the lawsuit ignores that the legislature passed SB 241, which codified the program and its future funding into law. The governor is confident that the courts will reject his meritless claims.“
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