Lawmakers, providers say New Mexico’s malpractice climate is forcing doctors, patients to leave

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…