The New Mexico Health Care Authority’s Behavioral Health Services Division is tasked with rebuilding New Mexico’s behavioral healthcare infrastructure. On September 22, Nick Boukas, the director of the New Mexico Health Care Authority’s Behavioral Health Services Division, told the New Mexico Legislatures interim Legislative Finance Committee that his agency has signed off on 11 of the state’s proposed 13 regional behavioral healthcare plans.
While needs vary from region to region, Boukas said that they have largely held four priorities in common:
- Expanding access to behavioral health treatment and recovery services.
- Strengthening youth, family, school and caregiver support.
- Addressing housing and transportation; and building and
- Retaining a behavioral health workforce.
According to a Legislative Finance Committee briefing document (brief) the state invested $565 million for behavioral health services in 2025, yet there is “little data” to indicate whether outcomes are improving or whether “access is better today than it was when the state began making these investments.” According to the brief the 13 plans carry a price tag of $110 million, according to the brief.
A few of the members of LFC committee in attendance expressed frustration over the slow-going process, which has become a common theme in this summer’s legislative hearings on the matter. Rep. Mark Duncan (R-Kirtland) told Boukas this:
“We’ve spent a whole lot of money with zero results yet.”
In response, Boukas told lawmakers that the seemingly slow nature of SB3’s implementation is to be expected and he said this:
“When I say that this is working, it’s that we’re getting folks to start talking to each other. None of the programs have rolled out yet to where we can start collecting data.”
Boukas has said he hopes to have all 13 regional plans approved by the end of the year. The Behavioral Health Reform and Investment Act Executive Committee is scheduled to meet in Santa Fe on Oct. 6.
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BEHAVIORAL HEALTH REFORM PACKAGE RECALLED
It was on February 27, 2025 that Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham signed into law the Behavioral Health Reform Package. The legislation consists of 3 Senate Bills that makes sweeping changes to how New Mexico’s mental health and drug abuse treatment programs are run statewide.
Senate Bill 3, known as the Behavioral Health Reform and Investment Act creates 13 behavioral health regions mirrored after the state’s 13 judicial districts. The bill requires regional plans crafted for providing mental health and substance abuse treatment.
The plans are overseen by the state judicial branch and include time lines and regional funding priorities. Local officials with counties, tribes and cities within each region have crafted unique plans to identify their communities’ biggest gaps in behavioral healthcare and to set goals for addressing them. During the 60-day 2025 New Mexico legislative session, Lawmakers also earmarked more than $555 million to fund an overhaul the state’s system for mental health and substance abuse treatment programs.
Under the enacted Behavioral Health Reform Package, the new mental health care model places the State Judiciary in charge of planning while leaving the state Health Care Authority largely in charge of overseeing funding. This is a significant change from the former system which largely fell under the Governor’s executive branch jurisdiction. The legislation enacted increases accountability by requiring regional plans outlining priorities for providing mental health and substance abuse treatment. The new trust fund provides annual funding to support the regional plans, which would largely be overseen by the state’s judiciary.
Senate Bills 1 and 2 signed into law by Governor Lujan Grisham on February 27, 2025 were also part of the Behavioral Health Reform Package and are summarized as follows:
Senate Bill 1: This bill created the Behavioral Health Trust Fund for the state of New Mexico to support mental health and substance abuse treatment, prevention, and intervention programs throughout the state. The behavioral health trust fund is invested by the State Investment Council. The trust fund distributes 5% of its annual value to fund programs and support investments in necessary infrastructure, technology, and workforce development to facilitate the expansion of services. The fund could also helps New Mexico unlock matching funds from federal, local, and private sources.
Money for the new fund was provided in a separate budget bill during the 60-day session and was for $555 million. The Behavioral Health Trust Fund, created by Senate Bill 1, aims to provide a sustainable funding source for regional behavioral health initiatives.
Senate Bill 2: This bill allocates $200 million to expand regional behavioral health services such as crisis response and outpatient care. The bill appropriates the funding to the New Mexico Administrative Office of the Courts and various state agencies to set up a new framework for behavioral health programs statewide. Senate Bill 2 was not part of the signing ceremony but never the less is part of the behavioral health reform package and became a part of general fund appropriations by the legislature.
CHANGES IN COMPETENCY LAWS FOR CIVIL MENTAL HEALTH COMMITEMENTS
It was also during the 2025 legislative session, the New Mexico legislature also enacted House Bill 8 known as the Omnibus Crime Package. House Bill 4 is the criminal competency legislation which was part of the enacted Bill 8 Omnibus Crime Package. It gives prosecutors more options to involuntarily commit people into a locked psychiatric facility if they are found to be dangerous to themselves or others and unable to stand trial. The courts will now have more options when dealing with suspects who are deemed incompetent to stand trial instead of simply releasing them back on the streets.
Under House Bill 4, when a court determines that a defendant is not competent to proceed in a criminal case the court shall determine if the defendant is dangerous and with a process for evaluating whether criminal defendants are competent to stand trial established. House Bill 4 specifically requires that “competency evaluators” determine whether defendants are dangerous to themselves or others. After a competency hearing, and if a defendant is found not to be competent, a judge then decides whether the defendant poses a threat. Based on that determination, a defendant is either ordered to attend an assisted outpatient treatment program or be sent to the state Behavioral Health Institute in Las Vegas, New Mexico.
The link to review House Bill 4 is here: https://legiscan.com/NM/text/HB4/2025
DESTRUCTION OF NON-PROFIT MENTAL HEALTH CARE PROGRAMS BY GOVERNOR SUSANA MARTINEZ
The need for the enactment of the Behavioral Health Reform Package in 2025 was necessitated in large part by the actions of Republican Governor Susana Martinez who falsely accused several providers of fraud, which led to a mass departure of mental health care providers in the state. One of the cruelest things that Republican Governor Susana Martinez did as governor was order an “audit” of mental health services by nonprofits in New Mexico which devastated New Mexico’s behavioral health system. In 2014, more than 160,000 New Mexicans received behavioral health services with most of those services funded by Medicaid according to the Human Services Department at the time.
In June 2013, under the direction of Governor Martinez, the Human Services Department cut off Medicaid funding to 15 behavioral health nonprofits operating in New Mexico. The Martinez Administration said that the outside audit showed more than $36 million in overbilling, as well as mismanagement and possible fraud. The audit was false. The Martinez Human Services Department agency brought in the 5 Arizona providers to take over.
In early 2016, at least 13 of the 15 nonprofits that were shut down were exonerated of fraud by New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas. Even though AG Balderas found no fraud and cleared the nonprofits of fraud the damage had been done to the nonprofits and many just went out of business. Lawsuits ensued and the Governor Lujan Grisham Administration was stuck settling most of the cases out of court to the tune of millions of taxpayer dollars.
Three of the five Arizona providers brought in by Governor Susana Martinez’s administration in 2013 to replace the New Mexico nonprofits pulled up stakes in the state and the states mental health system never fully recovered.
The freezing of Medicaid funding to 15 providers over false fraud and overbilling accusations and intentionally gutting the state’s mental health care system can only be described as cruel and vicious conduct by a political hack in the form of Republican Governor Susana Martinez. The state is still playing catch up to fill the void to provide mental health care services to those who desperately need them.
https://www.abqjournal.com/749923/third-arizona-behavioral-health-provider-to-pull-out-of-state.html
COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS
The passage of the three behavioral health bills by the Senate was a bi partisan vote and was a major victory and a reflection of just how far the state has come to fix its broken health care system. The passage of the 3 bills came more than a decade after former Republican Governor Susana Martinez gutted New Mexico’s behavioral system in 2013. Enactment of all 3 Senate bills making sweeping changes to the state’s health care system to deal with mental illness and drug abuse was long overdue.
Simply put, since 2014, the state of New Mexico has had a broken mental health care system largely in part because of the actions of former Republican Governor Susana Martinez when she ordered an “audit” of mental health services by nonprofits in New Mexico which devastated New Mexico’s behavioral health system. It will take more time to rebuild the broken mental health care system, but impressive progress is in fact being made.
Let’s hope that progress will continue come 2027 with the new Governor.