SANDOVAL COUNTY, N.M. — State senators and health-sector witnesses told a special interim task force that New Mexicois losing physicians and patient access because of recent changes to medical-malpractice law, rising insurance costs and the expansion of large damage awards.

Senator Anthony Thornton, a Republican representing District 19, said the state is "bleeding doctors, and we have to stop the bleeding." Thornton opened a panel in Sandoval County that included state health officials, hospital leaders, physicians and patients who described delayed care, rising malpractice premiums and consequences for national-security installations with large workforces in New Mexico.

The issue matters, witnesses said, because delays and shortages are already affecting residentsand employers. "One in four planned military transfers to New Mexico does not occur due to concerns about inadequate health care," Sherman McCorkle of the Kirtland Partnership Committee said, linking access problems to retention of personnel at Kirtland Air Force Base and other installations.

Panelists, testimony and data presented

Madam Secretary DeBlasio, representing the governor, told the group the administration convened a medical-malpractice summit and engaged an international actuary, Willis Towers Watson, which found New Mexicohas far higher liability costs per capita than neighboring states. "New Mexico has 50% more medical professional liability per capita than any of its neighbors," she said, and added premiums had risen about 63% in four years.

Doctors, hospital executives and business leaders described specific consequences:
- Patients Pat Jielik and Kathy Stark said they, neighbors and clients have sold homes or planned relocations because they cannot get timely primary or specialty care in New Mexico. Jielik said being placed on multi-year waiting lists forced him and his wife to put their home on the market.
- Kaye Green, CEO of a small Roosevelt County hospital, provided detailed premium figures: a hospitalmalpractice premium that was $319,000 in 2020 rose to about $612,000 in 2021; the latest quotes were $1.42 million and $1.6 million, with deductibles rising to $100,000.
- Presbyterian Healthcare representatives said their systempremiums rose roughly 225% over five years and retention (deductible-like) costs have grown 200%, with claim retentions as high as $20 million per claim.
- Physician witnesses reported recruiting failures: specialists who interviewed, then declined to practice in New Mexico after colleagues warned them about the litigation environment.

Multiple witnesses and data cited the 2021 amendments to the Medical Malpractice Act as a central turning point. The panel heard a range of statistics presented by the governors actuary and others: 32 of New Mexicos 33 counties are designated health-professional shortage areas; models project a shortage of roughly 2,118 physicians by 2030; claims per physician were about 60% higher than the national average from 201219 and rose to 140% higher from 202024 (figures cited from the task force materials and testimony).

Patient compensation fund and punitive damages

Witnesses described how the patient compensation fund (PCF) and other statutory provisions interact with lawsuits and insurance markets. Secretary DeBlasio summarized caps she cited from agency materials: independent providers capped at $750,000, hospitals at $6,000,000 and ambulatory surgical centers at $1,000,000 under the PCF; she also said the PCF has been strained by recent payouts.

Physicians and hospital leaders singled out punitive damages and how the states standard for proving them differs from most other states. Defense lawyer Jeff Krasdell (Rodney Law Firm) summarized litigation drivers and said punitive-damages claims and out-of-state plaintiff firms expanded activity in New Mexico after statutory changes. Several physicians said punitive awards can reach into personal assets and cannot be insured against, which discourages physicians from practicing here.

Proposed fixes discussed

Speakers suggested a set of policy changes to restore balance and stabilize insurance markets, including:
- Raising the burden of proof for punitive damages and capping punitive awards, so that punitive relief is reserved for truly egregious conduct.
- Restoring or redesigning how the patient compensation fund pays future medicals (some witnesses recommended returning to the prior monthly "pay-as-you-go" model rather than immediate lump-sum settlements that actuarial estimates may under- or over-pay).
- Capping contingency attorneysfees (several witnesses endorsed a tiered structure similar to Californias system: lower percentages for settlements, higher if a case goes to trial) so more of a recovery goes to injured patients.
- Clarifying the definition of "occurrence" to prevent stacking of claims (multiple full awards for a single clinical event involving multiple providers), which insurers say creates unpredictable and very large exposures.

Industry and community impacts cited

Terry Cole, president and CEO of the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce, testified that company site selectors now list access to health care as a top factor for business location decisions alongside education and public safety. She and other witnesses framed this as an economic-competitiveness issue, not only a health-care quality question.

Sherman McCorkle and other witnesses warned of national-security implications if military families decline assignments because of care access; McCorkle said defenses at Kirtland and other installations are already affected by transfer denials.

What the task force did and next steps

No formal votes or motions were recorded during the hearing. Secretary DeBlasio said the governor plans to form working groups after the special session to seek stakeholder consensus and to review the actuarial work and other data. Multiple lawmakers urged prompt legislative action; others cautioned about committee-level political obstacles to moving malpractice reform.

Ending note

Panelists from hospitals, physician groups and the business community pressed lawmakers to combine near-term fixes with longer-term investments in workforce and Medicaid reimbursement. "If we don't stop the bleeding," Senator Thornton said, "New Mexico won't survive." The task force completed testimony and plans further follow-up and working groups to craft potential drafts for the next legislative opportunity.