A bill that would ease the process for out-of-state doctors to become licensed in the state is headed to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s desk after final passage Tuesday in the House in less than 10 minutes.
The governor has already signaled her support for New Mexico joining the interstate medical compact, and said in her State of the State speech that the passage of Senate Bill 1 was one of her top priorities.
“If a qualified doctor in Colorado or Texas wants to move to New Mexico and start treating patients, this bill cuts red tape and gets them serving New Mexicans faster,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “I thank every member of the House and Senate who voted to approve this bill and send it to my desk as soon as possible.”
Meanwhile, the Senate passed House Bill 50, which would make it easier for social workers from other states to seek licensure in New Mexico, unanimously and with almost no debate Tuesday night, sending it to the governor’s desk.
The interstate doctor compact is aimed at expanding access to professionals in New Mexico, Santa Fe Democrat Sen. Linda Trujillo, who sponsored SB 1, said in a previous interview with The New Mexican. She argued the compact could bring new physicians to the state, particularly in rural communities along New Mexico’s borders.
SB 1 was the result of a weekslong “three-way conversation” between compact officials and lawmakers from the House and Senate, co-sponsor Rep. Marian Matthews said on the House floor.
“Joining the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact will improve New Mexicans’ access to primary care doctors, telehealth options, and highly-trained specialized physicians who typically practice in states with much bigger populations,” Matthews, D-Albuquerque, added in a news release.
Marschall Smith, executive director of the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact Commission, said the commission is “thrilled” New Mexico will become the latest jurisdiction to join the doctor compact, joining 42 other states, Guam and Washington, D.C.
“The leadership and members of the New Mexico House and Senate and the Governor of New Mexico demonstrated how the government can work together to address the concerns and needs of all New Mexicans,” Smith wrote in an email.
The commission has already started working with the New Mexico Medical Board to ensure the legislation will be implemented effectively, Smith added.
Though she expressed her full support for the doctor compact, House Minority Leader Gail Armstrong, R-Magdalena, argued it is “not a silver bullet” to solve the state’s shortage of physicians.
Rather, she argued, the state needs to change its medical malpractice laws.
Overhauling the state’s medical malpractice rules has turned into a central issue of this legislative session. Doctors and hospitals argue existing medical malpractice policy is pushing physicians out of the state, while injured patients and attorneys have argued changes to the law would leave victims with fewer avenues for justice without meaningfully improving the provider supply.
“If the governor signs it, we are giving them a full tank of gas to be able to go to other states,” Armstrong said. “So without medical malpractice reform, we will not fix this.”
The House has already passed six more interstate compacts for health care workers, affecting physician assistants, audiologists and speech language therapists, physical and occupational therapists, dentists and dental hygienists and emergency medical services personnel from other states.
Two more, pertaining to counselors and psychologists, have gone through House committees and await a floor vote. The future of those compacts, however, is less clear, as some senators expressed worries during a committee hearing late last month that 10 compacts could be too many for the state Regulation and Licensing Department to implement in the final months of Lujan Grisham’s administration.