A year-old state fund that pumps money into rural New Mexico’s health care system is flush with its second round of cash — and ready for applications to roll in.
The Rural Health Care Delivery Fund, established last year with $80 million in initial funding, was replenished during this year’s legislative session with a fresh $46 million, which state leaders plan to get out the door by the end of fiscal year 2027, said Elisa Wrede, strategic planning director for the New Mexico Health Care Authority.
“We can take independent providers, groups, really anyone who is a Medicaid provider and is providing Medicaid services and is looking to expand,” said Wrede, who oversees the program. “Really the key is, we need more services.”
State lawmakers and Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham have been supportive in recent years of efforts to shore up New Mexico’s stretched-thin rural health care network. Hospitals, clinics and independent practices all complain of difficulties hiring workers, trouble breaking even with Medicaid and Medicare reimbursement rates and skyrocketing costs of doing business, including medical malpractice rates.
The fund specifically serves providers operating in counties with fewer than 100,000 residents and awards grants to organizations that want to launch new services or expand availability of existing services, Wrede said.
“We’re looking to be able to fill the gaps in these communities,” she said.
When the first round of funding opened up a year ago, those providers flooded in.
“When it opened we had 146 applications come in, which is huge,” Wrede said. “Of that we were able to fund … 52 organizations.”
Projects the program funded included transportation, maternal-child health, dental, behavioral health, primary care, optometry and specialty care, according to Wrede.
Organizations that got a boost included El Centro Family Health, which planned to expand dental services in Taos County, and Gerald Champion Regional Medical Center in Alamogordo, which planned to restart its in-person outpatient psychiatric services, according to an earlier report.
Overall, Wrede said, state leaders found the program provided funding to make nearly 396 new full-time jobs and so far has served an additional 23,309 people with its expansions, for a total of 78,721 “patient encounters.”
“Those are people that needed services that would not have gotten that service before,” Wrede said.
The state is also working with employers to try to ensure the new services can be maintained even after the state funding runs out.
The state will hold a webinar next week to help potential applicants understand and navigate the program.
Lujan Grisham celebrated the new funding round in a news release Monday.
“This $46 million investment demonstrates our dedication to improving health care access in rural areas while providing critical support to health care providers,” she said in a statement. “We encourage all eligible providers to take advantage of this opportunity to strengthen the services they offer in their communities.”
