Santa Fe New Mexican, April 14, 2014

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Bubba Watson wins second Masters Tournament in three years Sports, B-1

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Monday, April 14, 2014

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Runoff election seems certain in Afghanistan

Kiev sending troops to eastern Ukraine

Local company gets vaccines to ‘last mile’

Official report of partial results indicates two candidates in lead. PAGE A-3

Move an attempt to quash pro-Russian insurgency amid violence. PAGE A-3

Firm makes thermal containers to store medicine. LIfE & SCIENCE, A-9

Rising medical bills can catch patients off guard Carlos Martinez, a parishioner of the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi, leads the Palm Sunday procession around the Plaza on Sunday morning. ROBERT NOTT/THE NEW MEXICAN

Española City Councilor Michelle R. Martinez won her seat in a coin toss. LUIS SÁNCHEZ SATURNO/THE NEW MEXICAN

Procession around Plaza, palms kick off Holy Week

Councilor set for real challenges after unusual path to office ESPAÑOLA hen is a tie as good as a win? In an election where a coin toss to break the deadlock goes your way. That odd circumstance was Michelle R. Martinez’s gateway to elective office. The quiet candidate with more determination than her opponents could imagine, Martinez received a resounding ovation last week when she finally took her seat on the Española City Council. Hers was an improbable comeback, succeeding amid widespread but unsupported charges of voter fraud. Martinez, initially Milan the runner-up in a Simonich tight election, gained a Ringside Seat tie vote after a recount last month. Then she ascended to office when a state district judge flipped a coin and it came up tails. Martinez’s opponent had insisted that he be allowed to call heads. What started as an inferno of controversy has flamed out. Most in Española seem satisfied that Martinez’s victory was legitimate. She was an honest candidate who knocked on a lot of doors and won over just enough voters to take office. But the man Martinez displaced on the council, Phillip Chacón, has cried foul, telling anyone who will listen that the Española election was tainted by cheats. Certain cities, big ones such as Chicago and small ones such as Española, population 10,200, have reputations for dirty elections. Chacón says Democrats dominate Española politics by whatever means

By Robert Nott The New Mexican

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Please see RINGSIDE, Page A-4

Today Mostly sunny and cooler. High 51, low 30. PAGE A-12

Pasapick www.pasatiempomagazine.com

Jean Cocteau Cinema Gallery Taos Pueblo silversmith and photographer Wings’ exhibit opens; continuing through May 11, 418 Montezuma Ave., 466-5528. More events in Calendar, A-2 and Fridays in Pasatiempo

Index

Calendar A-2

Classifieds B-5

As Christine Williams of Colorado Springs, Colo., watched the Palm Sunday procession wind around the Plaza in downtown Santa Fe on Sunday morning, she thought of what the ritual represents to her. “I love the coming together; there’s so little of that,” she said. “It’s simple if we make it simple. … It’s easy to forget that we can be kind and honest and accepting.” About 400 participants from three local churches — the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi, First Presbyterian Church and The Church of the Holy Faith — took part in Sunday’s celebration, which marks the beginning of Holy Week for Christians. Members from the three congregations left their individual houses of worship shortly before 11 a.m. as church bells from all three sites rang, calling the faithful to the Plaza. There, several religious leaders, including Archbishop Michael J. Sheehan of the Catholic Archdiocese of Santa Fe, the Rev. Adam Lee Ortega y Ortiz of the cathedral and the Rev. Michael Louis Vono, bishop of the Episcopal diocese of the Rio Grande, gave

Please see HOLY WEEK, Page A-4 Sally Butler’s heart skipped a beat when she realized she had been billed $259.56 in clinic fees for two visits to see a cardiac specialist. CLYDE MUELLER/THE NEW MEXICAN

Consumers likely to see higher health costs when hospitals take over private practices By Patrick Malone

The New Mexican

S

ally Butler’s heart raced, her blood pressure rose and she could barely see straight — all weeks after visiting a Santa Fe cardiologist for tests last year. Butler’s symptoms, however, weren’t due to a medical condition. They were a response to her bill. In addition to her copay, Butler expected her insurance to bill her for an electrocardiogram conducted by Dr. Robert Stamm at the Heart and Vascular Center in Santa Fe on April 25, 2013, and for a brief follow-up visit the following month to hear his interpretation of the test results. Butler was surprised, however, by $259.56 in clinic fees — $129.78 for each visit. “That’s just for walking through the door,” Butler said. What’s more, the clinic fees were applicable to her deductible, so they were an out-ofpocket expense that Butler’s Lovelace Health Plan insurance policy wouldn’t cover. Butler is no stranger to medical billing. She has acquainted herself with its intricacies in the past 20 years as the owner of Denman and Associates, a small contractor that employs 17, and as the mother of a daughter who required specialized care. Butler has even won a few concessions on medical bills in the past by challenging their validity. So Butler had no reservations about confronting her doctor’s office and insurance company about the unexpected charges. She learned that, essentially, she had been charged

Comics B-12

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Crosswords B-6, B-11

Life & Science A-9

for hospital visits. “I have no idea if it’s illegal, but it’s unethical,” Butler said. Under the federal rules that govern medical billing, it’s neither. It doesn’t matter that Butler’s medical appointments were at a clinic more than a mile away from Christus St. Vincent Medical Center, because the Heart and Vascular Center is owned by Christus, which handles the office’s billing. Under guidelines from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, specialists employed by hospital conglomerates can bill for hospital services, regardless of whether they are located in hospitals. Stand-alone medical practices that are not affiliated with hospitals cannot charge those fees. Butler’s out-of-pocket charges are a local symptom of a growing national trend — large hospital chains snapping up private medical practices, which results in higher consumer health care costs. An industry study released last year by consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Health Research Institute identified consolidation of health care services and specialty drug costs as the top two factors driving up medical costs for consumers in America. The trend is expected to continue. “Over half of hospitals plan to acquire physician practices in 2014,” the PricewaterhouseCoopers report said. “Studies suggest that consolidation in concentrated markets can drive prices up as much as 20 percent.” A question-and-answer segment in the March and April edition of the New Mexico Medical Society’s newsletter spoke to precisely the type of charge that puzzled Butler. In response to a question about why this charge is imposed, Albuquerque lawyer Debbie Solove responded that this “is one impetus for hospitals systems to buy out physician practices.” Solove did not return messages Friday seeking further comment.

Please see BILLS, Page A-10

El Nuevo A-7

Opinions A-11

Sports B-1

Tech A-5

Santa Fe group has big impact on economics

E

conomics is a stately subject, prim and respectable, one that’s altered little since its modern foundations were laid in Victorian times. Now it is changing rapidly, thanks to the work of a small group of researchers over the last two decades in New Mexico. The story started in 1987, when two Nobel prize winners, economist Kenneth Arrow and physicist Philip Anderson, brought together 10 economists and 10 scientists for a now-famous conference at the W. Brian new Santa Fe Institute. The purArthur pose was to see how economics Science in a could benefit from physics, comComplex World puter science and biology. That meeting gave birth to the institute’s first research program, The Economy as an Evolving Complex System, and I was picked to lead it. And that program, in turn, has gone on to lay down a new and different way to look at the economy.

Please see SCIENCE, Page A-4

ABOUT THE SERIES The Santa Fe Institute is a private, nonprofit, independent research and education center founded in 1984, where top researchers from around the world gather to study and understand the theoretical foundations and patterns underlying the complex systems that are most critical to human society. This column is part of a series written by researchers at the Santa Fe Institute and published in The New Mexican.

Time Out B-11

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Two sections, 24 pages 165th year, No. 104 Publication No. 596-440


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