Miners Hospital CEO seeks stability as one-time state funds and IGT use ease cash pressure; hospital faces low volumes, OB losses and debt schedule

Miners Hospital (agency 662) told the Appropriations & Finance Subcommittee it continues to operate as a full-service rural hospital serving northeast New Mexico, including obstetrics and long-term care, and described continued financial pressure despite a one-time special appropriation in FY25.

DFA staff said the LFC and executive recommendations were closely aligned. The primary difference was a $44,300 variance in expected contractual/medical inflation: LFC used a 3% medical-inflation assumption; DFA used 4%, producing the modest difference. DFA also noted that enactment of the Health Care Delivery and Access Act (HDAA) changed assessment mechanics and that a $675,000 line in LFC materials tied to other-financing uses should not be assumed the same way going forward.

Miners Hospital’s CFO, Lonnie Medina, confirmed the hospital received a $3.6 million FY25 special appropriation intended to eliminate debt service and support operations; the hospital instead used part of that appropriation to participate in an intergovernmental transfer (IGT) to secure Medicaid matching funds and pay operating costs. Medina said the hospital intends to make the minimum required debt payment of $1.2 million by May 2025, and noted the hospital had planned for a larger payment if more HDAA funds materialized than have been confirmed.

CEO Brian Rowland described the hospital’s rural-service challenges: low birth volumes (about 70 births in the last year), a mix of payers with a high share of Medicaid patients (CFO said roughly 80% Medicaid patients in obstetrics), and persistent reliance on agency/traveling nurses in critical units. Rowland and committee members discussed workforce costs: the CEO told legislators that agency nurse staffing raises costs substantially — the hospital estimates agency RN pay rates can be about 48% higher than directly employed staff in current market conditions.

Representative Dixon and others asked whether state policy changes (staffing ratios, scope-of-practice, or reimbursement changes) could alter financial prospects; hospital leaders pointed out that legal/regulatory staffing requirements, low patient volume and rural distance limit operational options absent higher reimbursement or systemic policy changes. Committee members asked DFA and LFC staff to reconcile HDAA assessment language with the hospital’s budget authority and to ensure the committee's recommendation reflects available HDAA mechanics.

Ending: The hospital reported it will make the required $1.2 million payment in May 2025 and asked staff to confirm HDAA/IGT mechanics; DFA and LFC staff will follow up to reconcile assessment language and available funds in the hospital’s FY26 budget recommendation.