Lawmakers are once again debating how to reform New Mexico’s medical malpractice laws this session, reigniting a long-running fight over balancing patient rights and the cost of practicing medicine.
Malpractice insurance has become increasingly expensive for Shawnna Read, a family and acute care nurse practitioner delivering care across southeastern New Mexico.
“The liability premiums have become a make or break expense,” said Read.
New Mexico does not cap past and future medical care costs for malpractice and lawmakers raised limits on non-economic damages in 2021. This session, House Bill 99 takes aim at punitive damages.
Bill sponsor, State Rep. Christine Chandler, (D-Los Alamos) said the state’s malpractice system has become an outlier, making it harder to recruit and retain doctors.
“Our approach to medical malpractice is broader, you might even say more permissive in terms of litigation. And that concerns me,” said Chandler.
Read warned that without comprehensive reforms access to care could worsen.
“Services will shrink, providers will continue to move away, and our care will be outsourced to other states,” Read said.
But trial lawyer Ben Davis disputed the idea that malpractice contributes to New Mexico’s physician shortage
“If you run the data, per capita New Mexico has more physicians than Colorado, than Texas, than California,” said Davis. “So, it is absolutely true that New Mexicans don’t have enough providers and really what we really need to do is funding residency programs”.
Workforce data, however, is mixed. National figures track “active” physicians, while state licensing data includes anyone holding a medical license, even if they’re not practicing. Others based on Medicaid billing suggest the state has lost doctors in recent years, according to the Albuquerque Journal.
The disagreement mirrors what lawmakers are grappling with as they debate HB 99.
Chandler said the potential of unlimited punitive damages make it harder for hospitals to invest in care.
“Because these are big judgments,” said Chandler.
The bill would cap punitive damages and require a higher burden of proof, what’s referred to as “clear and convincing” evidence.
But Davis argued this approach would limit the role of juries.
“I think it’s really unfair and doesn't seem to be in the best interest of the patient or frankly the doctor,” Davis said.
There is precedence for this type of reform as Chandler’s bill is largely based on Colorado’s model of malpractice reform that passed in 2024.
State Representative Kyle Brown in Colorado (D-,Boulder and Broomfield)
who carried that legislation HB24-1472 said it took months of intense negotiation after non-economic damages hadn’t been changed in decades. The state ended up with a policy that would raise malpractice caps over a 5-year period that adjusts based on inflation.
“We’re creating glide paths to larger compensation for victims, so hopefully that helps to make sure that the industry can adapt,” said Brown.
Brown has advice for lawmakers here when considering health care workers who are already saying that it’s too expensive to practice here.
“I think the question is, what is the role of these punitive damages or non-economic damages in making malpractice insurance affordable or not?” Brown said.
But Davis said the debate is missing a bigger issue, namely the role of private equity ownerships in hospitals. A national report put New Mexico at high risk for private equity ownership.
“We’re also having tremendous amounts of patient harm, patient deaths,” Davis explained. “And those patients and their families are not being considered in this debate at all”.
An amendment has been added to the bill that would exempt most New Mexico hospitals from proposed punitive damage caps, a move that the original bill sponsors told New Mexico in Depth undercuts the bill’s goal.
Overall, Chandler believes the original proposed caps are reasonable and will make doctors feel more comfortable practicing than they do now.
“It’s not a bill that will eliminate an injured party’s ability to get fair compensation and that’s very important. And it’s also very important that people have access to health care and they will continue to through this legislation,” said Chandler.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has made reforming medical malpractice laws a priority in this session and even warned of a special session if it doesn’t get done.
HB 99 currently sits in the House Judiciary Committee and is awaiting public comment and vote in order to move to the House Floor.
This coverage is supported by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and KUNM listeners like you.
