Presbyterian Medical Services was cleared of fraud allegations by the Attorney General’s Office on Monday. The nonprofit won’t be getting a refund on millions it paid to stay open after the state made those accusations in 2013.
Steve Hansen, CEO of Presbyterian Medical Services, said part of their $4 million settlement agreement with the Human Services Department was that Presbyterian couldn’t get that money back down the line. But he said they were faced with either forking over all their reserves or eliminating services, and he’s still sure spending that money was the right decision.
“The important thing is I don’t think our patients even realized this was going on," Hansen said, "and I think that’s a reflection of our staff and the job they’ve done all along through this process.”
Even amid all the excitement of being cleared, Hansen added, his thoughts keep turning to the local behavioral health agencies, who didn’t have the funds to settle and were forced to shut their doors.
The attorney general just announced that investigations showed 10 more behavioral health agencies—13 now in total—didn’t routinely defraud Medicaid.
Find all of Public Health New Mexico’s reporting on this topic at publichealthnm.org.
