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Friday, July 26, 2013
Protecting the Valles Caldera
Jazzman Eddie Palmieri performs Saturday. InsIde
Judge upholds funding freeze vs. providers By Steve Terrell
The New Mexican
A federal district judge has denied a petition from eight behavioral health providers under investigation for possible fraud that attempted to force the state Human Services Department to restore their Medicaid funding. The department froze the funding for 15 providers last month after an outside audit reported possible fraud. The eight providers sued in an attempt to force the department to unfreeze their Medicare funding and to stop publicizing allegations of
$1.25
Master of Latin classics at Lensic
Crews work to preserve historic cabins. loCAl , A-6
Eight providers sue state in an attempt to restore Medicaid payments
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wrongdoing “until and unless each plaintiff is furnished a meaningful name-clearing hearing, as required by the due process clause of the Constitution.” But Judge Christina Armijo, who held a hearing on the case last week, ruled that the providers have a weak case. “The Court concludes that [the providers’] deprivation of property claim has no realistic likelihood of success on its merits,” she wrote in her decision Thursday. Referring to the audit by the Boston-based Public Consulting Group that last month found evidence of overbilling and “credible allegations of fraud,” Armijo wrote that the providers’ “principal line of attack has been to attack the credibility of PCG
‘Water demand exceeds the supply’ Coss, city join forces to help conserve Colo. River resources
David Coss
Mayor said Thursday that the city will join with other municipalities in helping conserve the Colorado River.
By Staci Matlock The New Mexican
The Colorado River is oversubscribed and expected to dwindle in the years ahead, hit hard by drought and the water needs of millions of people, including Santa Feans.
“Water demand exceeds the supply,” Santa Fe Mayor David Coss said Thursday as he announced the city’s intention to join with other municipalities in seeking specific actions to help the Colorado River. The San Juan-Chama Project, which delivers water from a Colorado River tributary to the Rio Grande, provides almost half the drinking water for Santa Fe residents through
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Critics say new judicial complex lacks functionality
Please see FReeZe, Page A-4
sunshine group calls for release of health audit By Heath Haussamen
New Mexico In Depth
The state must publicly release an audit that flagged 15 New Mexico health organizations for problems including overbilling and possible fraud, the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government says. Two state agencies — the Human Services Department and the Attorney General’s Office — have failed to release the full audit of the 15 behavioral health providers, which serve thousands of New Mexicans struggling with issues such as mental illness and drug addiction. The Foundation for Open Government says the state is required by law to release the
full audit along with information that deciphers a code used in the audit to identify the 15 organizations. The stakes are high. The administration of Gov. Susana Martinez has frozen Medicaid payments to most of the 15 providers while the Attorney General’s Office investigates, even though federal regulations give the state flexibility in deciding whether to suspend payments. The administration has said it had no choice, but federal regulations say a state can decide whether freezing funding is in the best interest of the Medicaid program. Some advocates say stopping payments has put some of New Mexico’s
Please see AUdIT, Page A-4
New poll favors abortion limits Most Americans now support limiting abortions after 20 weeks, but not rules that hinder clinics. PAge A-5
Today An afternoon thunderstorm. High 86, low 59. PAge B-8
obituaries
Speed a focus in train derailment A day after Spain suffered its deadliest rail disaster in decades — which killed 80 people — investigators opened a probe into possible failings by the driver and the train’s in-built speed-regulation systems. PAge A-3
Elizabeth Ann Iwaski Gerdin, July 12 David John Gonzales, Santa Fe, July 19 Nancy Jane Henretta Neeley, 85, Dallas, July 20 Jaqueline “Jacqui” Present, 60, Santa Fe, July 23 PAge A-8
Pope chides Brazil’s leaders Pope Francis waded into the heart of Brazil’s troubles Thursday, telling residents of a notorious slum that their leaders must do a better job of helping them. PAge A-5
Index
Calendar A-2
Classifieds C-2
Comics B-10
Lotteries A-2
Opinions A-9
ABOVE: State District Judge Stephen Pfeffer’s courtroom was standing room only at a July 8 manslaughter hearing.
Confounding Courthouse
RIGHT: The lobby of the new courthouse is set up so that there is room for dozens of people to wait in line before they go through the metal detector. PHOTOS BY LUIS SÁNCHEZ SATURNO/THE NEW MEXICAN
BY TOM SHARPE THE NEW MEXICAN
i
f someone had conspired to make the state District Courts in Santa Fe less accessible to the public, they would have been hard-pressed to outdo the new downtown courthouse. The old courthouse at 100 Catron St. — built as a school in 1939, then remodeled into a courts complex in 1979 — was dowdy, shopworn and, at times, crowded with too few parking spaces for the general public. But it was more informal, easier and faster to use than the new $63 million courthouse that opened June 10 at 225 Montezuma Ave. The sparkling new Territorial-style judicial complex — like the old one, named for state District Judge Steven Herrera, who was killed in a car accident in 1998 — has twice the square footage as the old one. But there is no
Police notes A-8
Interim Editor: Bruce Krasnow, 986-3034, bkrasnow@sfnewmexican.com Design and headlines: Carlos A. López, clopez@sfnewmexican.com
Sports B-1
Time Out B-9
public parking at all in its underground garage, some features don’t function and others have created new obstacles for lawyers, pro se litigants, reporters and anyone else interested in following court business. Take, for example, the size of the 10 courtrooms. The regular courtrooms’ galleries have room for about 40 people on wooden pews — based on an 18-inch space for each person. Six more can sit down if chairs are added to the aisles. That’s slightly more than the theater-style seating in the old courtrooms. But the new ceremonial courtroom, where big trials are held, has a gallery for 86 — 104 if 18 chairs are set up in the aisles — down from 115 in the old ceremonial courtroom, which doubled as a jury assembly room. The new courthouse has a separate jury assembly room that seats 125.
Gen Next C-1
Main office: 983-3303 Late paper: 986-3010
Please see ConFoUndIng, Page A-4
Three sections, 32 pages Pasatiempo, 92 pages 164th year, No. 207 Publication No. 596-440