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New Mexico may be entering into interstate compacts that recognize health care workers licensed in other states

An artist created this mural in Albuquerque in 2020 to honor health care workers during the COVID pandemic.
Megan Kamerick
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An artist created this mural in Albuquerque in 2020 to honor health care workers during the COVID pandemic. Legislators advanced a bill Friday that's aimed at bringing more health care providers by entering into a interstate compact that recognizes provider licenses obtained in other states within the compact.

A trio of health care bills passed through their first committee Friday with broad bipartisan support. They’re all aimed at expanding access to health care by making it easier for some providers to move into the state

House bills 79, 81 and 82 would add New Mexico to a growing list of states allowing providers to practice as long as they’re licensed in any other state within the compact.

All three bills are sponsored by Rep. Liz Thomson, D-Albuquerque, and are essentially the same for different branches of health care: HB79 is for audiologists and speech language pathologists; HB81 is for occupational therapists; and HB82 is for physical therapists, each of which is a different compact.

President of the New Mexico Speech Language Hearing Association Adreinne Bratcher said the compacts hold a host of benefits, not the least of which is attracting more providers.

“The interstate compact would increase access to care by providing services to underserved and geographically isolated populations through telepractice,” she said, “as well as helping facilitate the continuity of care when patients, clients and/or students relocate or travel to another compact state.”

Rep. Thomson said military families with health care workers will especially benefit, since it can take them years to get licensed here when they move from another state, by which point they may be relocated again.

“The Department of Defense has warned … if we do not pass these laws, they may pull back on some of our missions, and maybe new missions coming into New Mexico,” she said.

All three bills passed the House Health and Human Services Committee with unanimous approval, and now head to the House Judiciary Committee. Senate bill 106 is a sister bill for psychologists that is still waiting to be presented in committee.

New Mexico only participates in one of the 10 currently recognized interstate health care worker compacts, according to local think tank Think New Mexico. The land of enchantment is one of 40 states in the Nurse Licensure Compact, and as many as 8 out of 10 nurses at some hospitals come from out of state, especially in rural and border areas.

Support for this coverage comes from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

Daniel Montaño is a reporter with KUNM's Public Health, Poverty and Equity project. He is also an occasional host of Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and Let's Talk New Mexico since 2021, is a born and bred Burqueño who first started with KUNM about two decades ago, as a production assistant while he was in high school. During the intervening years, he studied journalism at UNM, lived abroad, fell in and out of love, conquered here and there, failed here and there, and developed a taste for advocating for human rights.
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