Fireworks over $36 million behavioral health allegations — state Senator hospitalized, HSD boss storms out of meeting

Legislative committee meetings are usually on the dull side but over this Fourth of July weekend, lawmakers are chattering about a Legislative Health and Human Services Committee hearing that landed one veteran Democrat in the hospital and featured the Secretary of the Human Services Department storming out in exasperation.

“It was very wild,” state Sen. Gerald Ortiz y Pino, D-Albuquerque, told New Mexico Watchdog.

“There’s passionate people on both sides, that’s for sure,” said Sen. Mark Moores, R-Albuquerque.

The hearing, held Wednesday (July 3) in Albuquerque, centered on a growing controversy over an audit alleging that 15 behavioral health organizations across the state ran up $36 million in overpayments.

Human Services Secretary Sidonie Squier responded by cutting off funding to the companies and has lined up contractors from Arizona at a cost of more than $17 million to provide training and oversight to the nonprofits.

But many of the companies have protested the audit’s findings, with some accusing Squier of smearing their names. HSD says it’s reviewing the providers on a case-by-case basis and has cleared at least three to received state funding again.

Attorney General Gary King’s office is conducting an investigation into the millions reportedly misspent.

Squier, a cabinet member of Republican Gov. Susana Martinez, was the final person to appear before the committee on Wednesday and was peppered with critical questions by Democrats on the panel.

One of them was Sen. Ortiz y Pino who accused Squier of “destroying the behavioral health system in the state.”

According to the Albuquerque Journal, Squier responded by saying, “I’m not destroying the behavioral system in the state. The providers that have committee widespread and egregious fraud have destroyed it.”

Ortiz y Pino planned on asking more questions but suddenly fell ill. “I came down with a serious, blinding headache,” the 70-year-old Ortiz y Pino told New Mexico Watchdog on Friday (July 5). “I thought I was getting a stroke.”

Paramedics attended to Ortiz y Pino, who was taken to the University of New Mexico Hospital and later released. Ortiz y Pino said doctors said he did not suffer a stroke. “We simply think it was high stress, high blood pressure,” Ortiz y Pino said in a phone interview, adding that he was resting and feeling much better.

Back at the committee hearing, the questioning of Squier continued.

Sen. Moores estimated that Squier’s appearance ran between three and three and half hours.

“She made faces, rolled her eyes like a teenage girl,” Rep. Stephen Easley, D-Santa Fe, told New Mexico Watchdog. “She was just flat out rude.”

In Moores’ view, the questioning “seemed to consistently be going into the weeds about the specifics of the investigation” and some committee members “were asking the same questions.”

Rep. Easley said he was the last committee member to speak and said that Squier “slammed her hands on the desk and said — I’m paraphrasing – I don’t have to stand for this anymore, and left.”

New Mexico Watchdog left a voicemail message with the communications director at HSD but we’ve not received a response but Matt Kennicott of HSD was quoted by the Texas-New Mexico Newspapers Partnership as saying, “She was, from our perspective, being questioned like a murder suspect on the stand. From our perspective, she was very abused.”

“Some of the questions may have been repetitive but that’s the nature of the beast” in legislative hearings, Easley said, maintaining, “We did ask her tough questions … but we were calm and polite.”

Easley said he’s been informed that HSD is demanding an apology from the chairman of the Legislative Health and Human Services Committee (Democratic Rep. James Roger  Madalena) over Squier’s questioning. “I don’t anticipate that happening,” Easley said.

A Health and Human Services subcommittee will further discuss the controversy over the $36 million in question on Tuesday, July 9, in Roswell. Easley, who is vice chair of the subcommittee, said HSD officials and Squier were invited to attend the hearing but he’s been told they will not.

In another development, eight of the behavioral health providers accused to fiscal mismanagement have filed a lawsuit against the state, seeking an injunction to regain funding so they can remain in operation.

In the meantime, Attorney General Gary King’s office has started poring over the details and allegations in the audit, which was conducted by Public Consulting Group, Inc., based in Boston.

“The AG’s office received the referrals last week,” spokeswoman Lynn Southard said in an e-mail to New Mexico Watchdog Friday. “We must review them and we will gather additional information as in necessary in the course of our inquiry. Resources have been assigned and the process is underway. We are committed to making determinations as quickly as we can.”

“We don’t want to miss the big story here,” Moores said. “That’s the $36 million that was potentially stolen … I hope (the attorney general’s office) jumps on it, throws the necessary resources into this so that those who are free of blame can clear their names and those who may not can have their day in court. That’s what we’re supposed to be about.”

Contact Rob Nikolewski at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @robnikolewski