Contact: Isaac Padilla
Office: 505/986.4819
Isaac.Padilla@nmlegis.gov
FOR IMMEDIATE
Senators Question State’s Action to Eliminate Funding of School-Based Health Clinics Serving Children, Call for Explanation of Criteria and Urge Reconsideration
(Santa Fe, NM) – Two New Mexico state senators today criticized the recent decision by the State Department of Health (DOH) to not renew contracts at five school-based health centers (SBHCs) that deliver health care to vulnerable children, likely resulting in their closure at the end of the current school year on June 30th. Democratic Senate Majority Floor Leader, Senator Michael S. Sanchez (D-29-Bernalillo and Valencia) and Republican Senator Ted Barela (R-39- Bernalillo, etc.) expressed their strong opposition to the agency’s decision, particularly as it hits health services at rural Belen H.S. in Belen, and Mountainair Middle and H.S. in Mountainair, in a letter sent to DOH deputy secretaries Lynn Gallagher and Gabrielle Sanchez Sandoval. The senators questioned the criteria used by the agency to arrive at its decision and pointed out inaccuracies in its data. DOH earlier said the decision was based on underutilization and ‘sustainability’ at the health centers.
“We stand in strong opposition to the Department’s decision regarding the school-based health centers and urge you to reconsider. These centers are an important tool in the delivery of physical and behavioral health services for hundreds of students. Often, the clinics are the only opportunity students have to receive medical care during the school year because they are either underinsured or uninsured. In fact, about 25% of students visiting the Belen health center during the current school year were uninsured. As a result, the Department’s suggestion that students use a private health center in that community is not a realistic alternative for those students,” the senators wrote in their letter to DOH.
In addition to the Belen and Mountainair locations, DOH earlier announced changes to School on Wheels, Maxwell Municipal Schools in Springer, and Roosevelt Middle School in Albuquerque. State revenue shortfalls resulted in budget cuts to the State Department of Health this year.
SBHCs are clinics funded in part by the state Department of Health on or near school grounds that provide onsite primary and other services to school-age students among vulnerable, hard-to-reach or at-risk children and adolescents. Many of them may not have access to services outside of the school setting, particularly in rural and other medically under-served areas of New Mexico.
The senators also requested DOH to explain the term ‘sustainability’ as it was applied to the effected SBHCs.
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