State lawyers want behavioral health leakers identified
Lawyers for Gov. Susana Martinez’s administration have asked a judge to determine who disclosed details of private talks that were held to try to settle a series of lawsuits that allege wrongdoing in the administration’s 2013 shake-up of behavioral health care services.
The Human Services Department cut off Medicaid funding to 15 providers of addiction and other behavioral health care services because of alleged overbilling and fraud, and 10 of the providers filed lawsuits alleging violations of their due-process rights. Mediation sessions were held in January between the department and the providers.
The department asked a state District Court judge to toss out claims by any provider “found to have divulged confidential mediation communications” to state Senate President Pro Tem Mary Kay Papen, D-Las Cruces, and to The Santa Fe New Mexican.
“One or more Plaintiffs purposely divulged details of the offers exchanged by the parties to a local newspaper reporter and leaked the nature of the offers exchanged to a state senator,” reads the state’s Feb. 14 motion filed by the Albuquerque law firm of Conklin, Woodcock & Ziegler. “These actions were strategically done to undermine the integrity of the mediation process and destroy any faith Defendants had in Plaintiffs’ ability to keep their word, which will significantly hamper the parties’ ability to resolve this case in the future.”
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