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.
CHIMAYO, N.M. (KRQE) – A suspect is dead following a shooting involving the Rio Arriba County Sheriff’s Office in Chimayo on Highway 76. Deputies are said to be okay. New Mexico State Police is investigating the shooting.
KRQE News 13 will provide updates as they become available.
LAS CRUCES, N.M. (KFOX14/CBS4) — A leader in the New Mexico Republican Party was arrested Wednesday, accused of a deadly hit-and-run in Las Cruces.
Former Treasurer of the Republican Party in New Mexico, Kimberly Ann Skaggs, 54, was arrested Wednesday and charged with leaving the scene and tampering with evidence, jail records show.
Police documents show the charges stem from a deadly hit-and-run crash that happened Monday afternoon, which killed 40-year-old bicyclist, Andrew Brown.
Investigators believed Skaggs was involved after an investigation revealed that Skaggs allegedly was driving fast in the area, fled the scene after the crash and then tried to hide the vehicle from authorities.
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The investigation
According to police documents, a witness at the scene of the crash– 850 N. Fairacres Rd.– described seeing a dark blonde-haired woman flee in a black Cadillac Escalade SUV.
Afterwards, investigators said they saw on Flock cameras– A.I. powered license plate readers– a black Cadillac Escalade traveling near the site of the crash minutes before the incident.
READ MORE: Dona Ana County expands Flock license plate cameras as officials cite crime-solving gains
The license plates showed that the vehicle belonged to Skaggs and that, in September 2025, the Las Cruces Police Department had given her a citation for “racing on streets-exhibition driving.”
Investigators stated that a business on Picacho Ave. captured what they alleged was the same black Cadillac Escalade driving fast.
Then, the documents described how investigators tracked down the Escalade using OnStar’s live GPS tracking, discovering the SUV was at a property on the 5000 block of Northwind Road, which investigators said the Dona Ana County Assessors Office confirmed is a property owned by Skaggs.
On Tuesday, at around 6:41 p.m.– over 24 hours after the deadly hit-and-run– investigators executed a search warrant on the property and described finding the black Cadillac Escalade behind a home, under a red metal carport.
Investigators noted damage on the SUV consistent with the crash, highlighting that there was blood splatter near one of the front tires, markings on the front bumper consistent with hitting a bicycle and parts missing, which investigators said were the same parts found at the scene.
Dona Ana County jail records show Skaggs was booked on Wednesday afternoon and remains jailed without a bond.
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About Skaggs
On the official website of the Republican Party of New Mexico, Skaggs was listed as the treasurer before she was removed.
KFOX14/CBS4 has reached out to the Republican Party to learn more and are waiting for a comment regarding the arrest.
Also, according to election statistics, Skaggs ran for State Representative in District 36 in 2022 and 2024, losing both times to Democrat Nathan P. Small.
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SANTA FE, N.M. – Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham asked Attorney General Raúl Torrez to investigate whether any Drug Enforcement Administration agents broke state law when pills reached New Mexico streets.
In a statement, Lujan Grisham said, “make no mistake: the DEA knew people would die if these pills made it into New Mexico communities.”
The governor also shared a timeline from 2022 to 2025 that she said shows when she asked federal officials for help with New Mexico’s fentanyl crisis and violent crime.
Lujan Grisham said the first request came on June 21, 2022, when she wrote to then-Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Christopher Wray and asked for 50 additional federal agents.
She said she wrote to then-Attorney General Merrick Garland on Sept. 15, 2022, asking for more agents, resources and support for New Mexico law enforcement.
Lujan Grisham said she wrote Garland a second time on Aug. 8, 2023, with the same request.
What came next?
About a month later, Lujan Grisham said she sent Garland a third letter and said New Mexico needed more federal law enforcement to curb violent crime, drug trafficking and human trafficking.
She said her most recent request came on Sept. 4, 2025, when she wrote to former Attorney General Pam Bondi and again asked for additional agents and resources.
The governor’s statement says those requests span several years as she pressed the federal government for more help in New Mexico.
Full statement from Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham:
“I am appalled by reporting this week by the Associated Press and Albuquerque Journal that revealed federal authorities made a deliberate decision to let hundreds of thousands of fentanyl pills flood into New Mexico communities, despite knowing that fentanyl is so lethal the White House has designated it a weapon of mass destruction.
Let me say that again: the Drug Enforcement Administration watched as 74,000 fentanyl pills were delivered to a mobile home park in Albuquerque, and they did nothing. And that’s just one transaction. Shockingly, the federal government stood by while monitoring shipments, tallying exact pill counts, and watching as these deadly drugs hit the streets.
There are no words to describe how reckless and dangerous these decisions were. Make no mistake: the DEA knew people would die if these pills made it into New Mexico communities, and the agency let it happen anyway. The result: hundreds of New Mexican parents burying their kids. Hundreds of New Mexican kids growing up without stable parents. All while the federal government stood by.
If the justification for letting these pills flood our communities was that it would somehow make New Mexico safer down the road through bigger eventual busts, the results say otherwise. New Mexico now leads the nation in the increase in overdose deaths for the second straight year, despite deaths dropping nationwide.
Today, I wrote to Attorney General Raúl Torrez and asked him to investigate whether any federal agents broke state law when they allowed lethal drugs to remain on our streets, and to prosecute anyone responsible — regardless of whether they are a federal agent or not.
I have spent years working across two administrations — writing letters, traveling to Washington, meeting directly with President Joe Biden and his cabinet, pushing for accountability, asking for more federal agents to be deployed to New Mexico to help fight this crisis.
- On June 21, 2022, I wrote to FBI Director Christopher Wray, imploring the FBI to assign no less than 50 additional agents to New Mexico to stem escalating drug trafficking and violent crime.
- On September 15, 2022, I wrote to Attorney General Merrick Garland, requesting that the Department of Justice provide additional federal agents, resources and support to New Mexico law enforcement. We asked the department to match the level of investigative, analytical, and technical resources the FBI had deployed in its Buffalo, NY surge.
- On August 8, 2023, I wrote again to Attorney General Garland, renewing my request that the DOJ expeditiously assign more federal agents to New Mexico.
- On September 7, 2023, I wrote to Attorney General Garland for a third time, reiterating my request once more federal law enforcement support to curb violent crime, drug and human trafficking.
- On September 4, 2025, I wrote to Attorney General Pam Bondi, once again requesting additional agents and resources.
I have declared the surge of drugs like fentanyl to be a public health emergency. I have deployed the National Guard to both Albuquerque and Española. While my administration was doing everything we could to stem the tide of fentanyl coming into our state, the federal government deliberately allowed it to flood in.
New Mexican lives are not the federal government’s cost of doing business.
I plan to hold the federal government accountable for this disaster and will explore every possible avenue of action against the federal government to right these wrongs.”
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