New Mexico's attorney general announced Tuesday an investigation into Memorial Medical Center, the Las Cruces hospital operated by Lifepoint Health, to find out whether the ability, which is positioned in a current NBC News reportviolated state law by turning away indigent and low-income patients in search of treatment.
The Attorney General, Raul Torrezsaid his office is reviewing Memorial's patient policies for compliance with a state law and the hospital's performance with respect to New Mexico state law governing take care of indigent patients.
At Tuesday's press conference announcing the investigation, Torrez said he had just met with Memorial patients and doctors to debate their concerns.
“It is obvious to me that the management of this facility has failed to give the proper place and priority to the welfare, safety and care of its patients,” he said. “It is obvious to me that decisions have been made from a perspective that appears to be motivated by profit and profit maximization and without showing due respect and consideration for the patients in their care.” He also warned hospital management against retaliating against anyone who speaks out concerning the hospital's practices.
An NBC News report last month detailed allegations that Memorial Medical Center turned away cancer patients despite the fact that the hospital was operated by Lifepoint Health, the hospital's operator, which was acquired by New York-based private equity firm Apollo Global Management. Medical records and interviews with 13 patients detailed how the hospital denied treatment or demanded upfront payments to secure treatment.
Barbara Quarrell, a former nurse at Memorial, is one patient who said the hospital denied her treatment after she was diagnosed with cancer in 2022. She told her story on the attorney general's announcement.
Quarrell told NBC News she was encouraged by the attorney general's investigation. “It's about time,” she said. “Memorial is all about money, not patients anymore. Why are they even in the health care business if it's not about patients?”
In an announcement, a hospital spokeswoman said: “Memorial Medical Center was surprised to learn of this investigation during Attorney General Torrez's press conference today. We remain committed to expanding access to health care and being a good community partner in Las Cruces and Doña Ana County and will cooperate fully with this investigation.”
Before the report was published and broadcast in June, Memorial told NBC News that it was not denying treatment, but that two of its top officials had called to apologize to 2 patients who had told NBC News they’d been turned away.
A spokeswoman for Apollo didn’t reply to an email in search of comment.
Lifepoint Health, the operator of Memorial, oversees the country largest chain of mostly rural hospitals — 62 acute care facilities in 16 states. Lifepoint is the topic of two US Senate investigationsalong with other private equity-owned healthcare corporations, NBC News reportedThe goal of the investigation is to find out the profits Apollo and other corporations constructed from the deals and whether or not they caused harm to patients and doctors. Apollo has said it’s cooperating with the investigation.
Although Lifepoint operates Memorial, the ability and the land on which it stands are owned by town of Las Cruces and Doña Ana County. Denying patients treatment could violate the 40-year lease agreement Memorial signed with the county and city in 2004. The lease states that the ability must generally proceed to treat “those who are unable to pay the full cost of the medical services provided to them.”
About 225,000 people live in Doña Ana County, the urban and rural region that Memorial serves, and nearly 15% are uninsured. The latest census figures showAbout 23% of the county’s residents live in poverty, in comparison with 11.5% nationwide.
A spotlight of the state investigation, Torrez said, is whether or not Memorial misrepresented its health care services for indigent patients. The hospital's most up-to-date annual report back to the community states, “Providing care to all of our fellow citizens, regardless of ability to pay, is the foundation of our mission and commitment to our community.”
Torrez can be investigating whether Memorial violated a New Mexico law that governs financial assistance programs for patients. The Patients Debt Collection Protection Act requires hospitals to screen financial assistance, he said, adding that “patients being turned away without screening would be a violation of the law.” Some of the patients NBC News interviewed for the June report described being denied treatment without screening to see if they might qualify for financial assistance.
Before 2004, Memorial was a nonprofit community hospital. Under Lifepoint, Memorial is a for-profit and highly profitable company. It charged 6.7 times its costs for care in 2021, in keeping with probably the most recent figures available from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). According to Ge Bai, a professor of health policy and management on the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health based in Washington, DC, the typical amount for-profit hospitals nationwide charge is lower than five times their costs.
The CMS Hospital Comparison Page confirms that Medicare costs per beneficiary at Memorial are each higher than the national average and nearly 20% higher than the state average.
Yolanda Diaz is a patient advocate at CARE Las Cruces, a nonprofit she founded that helps patients in need pay for his or her health care and costs. Diaz has been informing county and city officials since 2021 that Memorial is popping away patients, a practice she believes is inhumane and unjust.
“I was disappointed that no one in Las Cruces and Doña Ana County leadership stepped forward to take the necessary action, but I was hopeful,” Diaz said in an email. “I believe that launching an official investigation by the New Mexico Department of Justice is the absolute best course of action, and I hope for revelations to the public, necessary change, and justice.”
Hospital documents made public upon request show that for years, Memorial's written indigent care policy required it to supply care to patients who were unable to pay the complete cost of their care and that discounts or cost-sharing arrangements were discussed for individuals who met income criteria. That modified last yr, five years later. after Apollo, the private equity giant co-founded by Leon Black, bought Lifepoint, documents show.
Private equity firms like Apollo have been taking on large parts of the healthcare industry lately. Typically, the firms burden the businesses they buy with debt, then cut costs to spice up profits and be attractive to potential buyers later. Nearly 1 / 4 of New Mexico's hospitals are controlled by private equity firms, in keeping with a report. Study by the Private Equity Stakeholder Projecta nonprofit that analyzes the impact of the private equity industry on consumers.
The American Investment Council, the lobby group for personal equity, says the industry improves healthcareBut independent academic studies show that non-public equity firms’ involvement within the industry results in significant cost increases for patients and payers akin to Medicare. Research shows that corporate investments in healthcare are related to lower quality of care, including a ten% higher mortality rate in Nursing homes owned by private equity and further incidents of infections, blood clots and falls in hospitals.
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