Interstate Compacts Would Increase Access to Healthcare

“I currently have chronic Lyme disease and did not think twice about moving to New Mexico and continuing my treatment there. Unable to identify a specialist who could continue my treatment, I decided I would continue with my Colorado specialist through tele-health and occasional trips back there. However, my Colorado specialist could not use tele-health consultations because he is not licensed in New Mexico and New Mexico does not participate in the interstate compact.”

“I went to Boston to a cardiologist recently, and she ran some tests, and we agreed that while I would have returned home by the time the results were back, she would call me, and we could discuss them. That turned out to be a problem, the hospital where she works decided that was practicing medicine in New Mexico and she couldn't do that because of our issues and so, no.”

These are real people, with real life experiences, where having New Mexico join the interstate compacts would have made the difference between doing without care or traveling long distances to access the care they needed, if they were able to make such a trip.

The quickest way to increase access to healthcare providers in New Mexico is for the state to join the nine major healthcare worker compacts.

These compacts are agreements between states to recognize medical licenses issued by other states. Their primary goal is to address physician shortages and improve access to healthcare, especially in underserved areas and through telemedicine.

Each state retains the right to refuse to recognize a license issued by another state. Participating states have access to a centralized database of disciplinary action records.

Participation in the compacts is growing. Thirty-one states have adopted eight compacts. All of our neighboring states have adopted at least five of the compacts, including the doctor compact.

Meanwhile New Mexico has only joined the Nurse Licensure Compact. In 2003, we joined forty states granting nurses the privilege to practice in other compact states. As many as 80% of the nurses practicing in New Mexico hospitals, especially in rural and border areas, can practice here because of the Compact.

Why hasn't New Mexico joined more Compacts? In order to join, each state’s legislature must agree to the same Compact language approved by the other participating states. During the last legislative session, the House unanimously passed seven compacts. They were sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee where six died without ever receiving a hearing.

When the committee finally heard the doctor compact, Senators Joseph Cervantes and Katy Duhigg, both trial attorneys, wanted to make significant changes to the agreement and specifically to include a provision that New Mexico lawyers be able to sue the Compact Commission, an interstate body that oversees the compact, made up of members of each state’s medical board.  

There is no reason to sue the Commission. Doctors treating patients under a compact are governed by the same state laws that govern those residing and licensed in New Mexico, and they can be sued like any other doctor.

What does failure to join the Compact mean? Doctors licensed in other states cannot practice or provide tele-health services in New Mexico without completing the licensing process here. This means that if you or a family member needs a doctor or specialist, and none are available in New Mexico, you must physically travel to another state to access care.

Our dire shortage of providers would be eased by joining the compacts. Patients would have a greater choice of providers, including specialists.

Ask the members of the Senate Judiciary Committee to focus on what matters most: patient access to healthcare.