New Mexico gets $211 million under new rural health program – Kathy Cook, Albuquerque Journal
New Mexico will get $211 million in federal dollars to support rural health care in 2026.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced $10 billion in awards for all 50 states through the new Rural Health Transformation Program on Monday, including the money for New Mexico.
“This $211.5 million federal investment recognizes New Mexico’s bold plan to transform rural health care delivery across all 33 counties,” Health Care Authority Secretary Kari Armijo said in a statement. “The funding will support workforce recruitment and retention, expand technology for rural providers, and strengthen the hospitals and clinics that serve as lifelines in our communities.”
H.R. 1, the large tax package passed in July, made significant cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and food assistance. In New Mexico, changes to Medicaid could mean a loss of $8.5 billion in federal funds from 2028 through 2037, according to a New Mexico Health Care Authority guide. But lawmakers also used H.R. 1 to create a new $50 billion, five-year federal program to support rural health care.
“More than 60 million Americans living in rural areas have the right to equal access to quality care,” Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. said in a statement. “This historic investment puts local hospitals, clinics, and health workers in control of their communities’ healthcare.”
New Mexico’s award is great news, said Julia Ruetten with the New Mexico Hospital Association, and she is hopeful it will have a meaningful impact on the state’s rural residents. But she does not think the program will offset coming Medicaid cuts.
“It kind of ends at the same time that the biggest impacts to the Medicaid cuts for hospitals are going to go into effect,” Ruetten said. “So, I do have concern that it's setting up a future cliff in terms of supplemental federal funds that hospitals will utilize or be reliant on.”
The $50 billion in funds will be allocated over five years, with $10 billion available each year, according to the CMS news release. First-year awards ranged from $147 million to $281 million, according to a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services news release. New Mexico’s award is above the national average of $200 million.
The first-year award will allow New Mexico to start all five of the initiatives outlined in its program application, according to Health Care Authority spokeswoman Marina Piña. The state will focus on establishing a Rural Health Sustainability and Innovation Center. The center is meant to serve as the central operation and coordination hub for the program, providing infrastructure to launch initiatives, manage subawards and procurement activities and give technical assistance. The state budgeted $123 million for the center over the five year program.
New Mexico’s application also includes plans to spend $393 million strengthening speciality care and chronic disease management with regional speciality and maternal care networks, provider training and remote care technologies. The state also proposed using $243 million to expand the rural health care workforce; using $188 million to launch a competitive grant program for rural, frontier and tribal communities to use on health initiatives that address unique health care challenges; and spending $53 million on a statewide health analytics platform.
New Mexico’s program application asked for $1 billion over five years. The program is structured as a multi-year opportunity, awarding money annually based on federal appropriations, program performance and compliance with federal reporting and accountability requirements.
“New Mexico intends to fully implement its approved plan and demonstrate measurable progress toward access, workforce, and sustainability goals, positioning the state to remain competitive for future funding under this program,” Piña said in a statement. “CMS retains flexibility to adjust award amounts each year based on these factors.”
Long reliant on oil and natural gas, Farmington takes first steps into renewable energy future – John Miller, Albuquerque Journal
Amid acres of pump jacks and miles of natural gas pipeline that have been in place for decades, a new vision for how this Four Corners community and its neighbors get their power is gradually beginning to take shape.
Despite Farmington's reputation for fossil fuels production in the oil- and gas-rich San Juan Basin, Farmington Electric Utility installed two high-efficiency engines at Bluffview Power Plant this month and is planning to break ground on a 4 megawatt AC solar facility with 12 megawatt-hours of battery storage next year.
"Our goals were based on reliability, low cost energy for our customers and environmental benefit," said Hank Adair, director of Farmington Electric. "And one of the pieces of generation to be added in our portfolio was some reciprocating internal combustion engines, or RICE engines, as they're called."
The new equipment will produce a combined 18 MW, or enough energy to power roughly 14,000 homes across the utility's service area, which includes a total of 46,000 metered customers in Farmington, Bloomfield and Kirtland, as well as portions of Rio Arriba County and the Navajo Nation.
The engines were installed under a contract Farmington Electric struck in the fall of 2023 with Wartsila, a Finnish energy company, and are located inside a new building at the plant at 755 W. Murray Drive in Farmington.
While one new full-time employee was hired to manage the engines, a total of 80 contractors were hired to help install them and construct the new building they're housed inside, Adair said, explaining that many workers came from the surrounding region.
The engines are currently powered by natural gas pumped from the surrounding San Juan Basin, but they're also capable of burning renewable energy sources, such as biofuels, synthetic fuels or hydrogen blends. The engines are also more flexible, Adair added, allowing the utility to calibrate them based on fluctuating energy demands.
Before the coal-powered San Juan Generating Station, located between Farmington and Shiprock and co-owned by Tuscon Electric Power and Farmington Electric, was decommissioned in 2017, the city of Farmington and its Public Utility Commission began creating a roadmap that included the gradual introduction of renewables into its existing energy portfolio.
"I think we reconcile it as what our governance and what our community would love to see," Adair said of the difference between renewable and non-renewable energy sources in the region. "Our focus, again, is for reliable, low-cost energy generation and a sound portfolio, so we balance all that. I don't think they're at odds. I think this utility looks for what is the best fit at the time to meet all of our needs, right?"
A ribbon cutting for the RICE engines is set for Jan. 14 from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.