Daniel Montaño
Public Health ReporterDaniel 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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The newest edition to Albuquerque’s Gateway system of care is getting ready to accept residents. The new pallet home community, dubbed Gateway Recovery, is meant to provide temporary housing for people who successfully complete medical detox, but don’t have anywhere to live while taking the next steps in addiction recovery. -
On this episode we talk about the promises and threats from private equity ownership in health care. New Mexico has the highest proportion of private equity- owned hospitals in the country and we’ve been named most at risk of further private equity takeovers. That's why lawmakers recently passed an oversight bill on hospital acquisitions and mergers. -
The University of New Mexico’s Project ECHO has connected professionals around New Mexico, and the world, to health education using virtual training for decades. But it’s now offering training to teach everyone in New Mexico how to respond to an opioid overdose and how to properly administer naloxone. -
State legislators’ first attempt to pass a bill providing oversight of hospital mergers, acquisitions and private equity takeovers failed in the face of overwhelming industry opposition. They then successfully scrambled to get a second — less controversial — bill passed before the session closed. With the Governor's signature, the state will now have permanent protection, but some lawmakers worry the final bill might have too many concessions -
Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham on Friday, just hours before the deadline, vetoed House Bill 36, which would have allowed optometrists, who do not attend medical school, to perform delicate eye surgeries with only 36 hours of training and 4 hours working on a model eye unsupervised by an actual eye surgeon. -
The Albuquerque City Council on Monday passed a plan that's been in the making for about a year and a half on how to spend millions of dollars in funds meant to fight the opioid epidemic, but there was some debate and disagreement on where the funds should go between the council and the mayor's office. -
As Elon Musk’s DOGE group and the Trump administration continue to slash federal spending, the New Mexico Humanities Council, which provides support for and directly runs programs that enrich and preserve culture and the arts, might have to close its doors after the termination of federal grants. -
A ribbon cutting ceremony at New Creation Church attracted community members and local leaders, like Myor Tim Keller and County Commissioner Adriann Barboa, who celebrated the city's first outdoor space specifically set aside for unhoused people to call home. -
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced Thursday 20,000 job cuts, about a quarter of its workforce, and the withdrawal of $12 billion in grants. It’s all part of efforts by Elon Musk’s DOGE group and the Trump Administration to slash federal spending. That’s left state departments of health, and both private and public agencies across the country — and here in New Mexico — reeling. -
A bill passed in the recent legislative session to make it easier for optometrists to perform complicated eye surgeries. But a professional association of ophthalmologists wants the governor to veto the legislation because they say it puts patients at risk.
