On Oct. 23, the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors heard from Carrie Brunder of the New Mexico Medical Society about the physician shortages in the state.
Brunder shared that it’s alarming that physician retention is so low in New Mexico.
“New Mexico must recognize that (it needs) to recruit and retain physicians, because UNM medical graduates are not staying here,” she said. “UNM’s own retention report shows we fall behind the national average in retention of our medical trainees.”
According to the report, 20.6% of MDs from UNM stay in the state. Meanwhile, nationally, 52.5% of MDs and medical residency students stay in the state they studied/trained in.
Brunder said, as of 2024, the state needed 8,445 medical professionals in the state. These range from physicians to nurses to pharmacists and public health officials. She said at this rate, by 2035, the state will be short 16,410 health care professionals.
She said New Mexico is losing medical professionals for many reasons but focused on a few:
- Medicine is the only industry in which the business cannot control the price of the services or goods provided.
- Medicare reimbursement rates continue to decline – in New Mexico, approximately 70%+ of patients are covered by government insurance (Medicaid or Medicare) so any changes in these reimbursement rates have an outsized impact.
- The rates practices receive for procedures are set through a lopsided negotiation process with an MCO where the practitioners almost always receive less payment for the procedure than the cost to provide it.
- The rates for commercial plans often fall back on Medicaid and Medicare rates, which we show are lower than practice costs.
- These rates are set, often, more than a year in advance of the service provided through the fee schedule. Some of the contracts have evergreen clauses that make it difficult for providers to renegotiate rates for years at a time.
- This means “new price setting” cannot occur mid-year to react to growing costs.
- The only way to increase revenue is to see more patients, which is not the best quality of care, or to accept only private-pay patients in which the provider can set their own prices. But most New Mexicans could never afford to receive care in that setting.
- Add unfriendly business practices, like GRT on health care services, and you put New Mexico medical businesses at an automatic disadvantage.
- Physicians have experienced no notable increase in Medicare in 20 years – 2025 actually cut physician reimbursements by 2.8%
- New Mexico Medicare reimbursement rates are lower than surrounding states due to the Geographic Practice Cost Index (GPCI)
- Federal action on Medicare has a much larger impact on New Mexico’s physicians than other states due to our reliance on the system for direct patient care and reimbursement rates for all other services.
- Medical malpractice insurance rates in New Mexico far outpaces any other state.
Brunder said the organization’s goals for the year are medical malpractice, policy solutions, punitive damages reform, definition of occurrence, collateral source, hospital participation in the PCF and Medicaid budget and fee-for-service schedule.
To view the presentation, click here.