Select Accomplishments
of the Center:

• The Center succeeded in convincing the University of New Mexico Hospital to make major improvements in the access that poor people have to Hospital care. After several years of advocacy in conjunction with community groups, the Center filed two lawsuits against the Hospital. The suits sought greater accountability for public funds that the Hospital received for providing indigent care and solutions to the lack of access to care by the indigent and immigrants.  As a result, the Hospital agreed to make sweeping changes to its policies and practices.  Some of the changes include: new financial policies for uninsured patients that reduce costs for them by more than 30%, that no longer require 50% payments in advance, and that provide them with affordable payment plans; improvements to the institution’s entire medical interpretation and translation delivery system; and the establishment of a new Office of Community Affairs to ensure community interests are being addressed.  These policies improve access to healthcare for about 105,200 uninsured people in New Mexico.

• In 2005, the Center on Law and Poverty helped draft and pass the Day Labor Act, which provided increased legal protections for our most vulnerable working poor.  In 2006, we learned that the Department of Labor had not implemented the new law.  We demanded they do so, and then pitched in to help.  We researched regulations for similar laws in other states and used the best examples of these to draft regulations, procedures and complaint forms for our state.  We also teamed with the NM Coalition to End Homelessness to plan outreach to day laborers to inform them of the new protections.  These regulations will provide protections for roughly 4,600 day laborers in New Mexico.

• The Center on Law and Poverty succeeded in establishing a program to provide assistance to New Mexico attorneys in paying off their law school loans if they work in the public  sector for at least three years.  The program makes it possible for more attorneys to work for organizations and agencies such as the Public Defender Department and New Mexico Legal Aid.  The program began accepting applications in September of 2006 and is now making awards.  It will help approximately 20 attorneys per year afford to work in public service organizations.

• In 2005, the Center filed suit against the state to stop the Human Services Department from using a computer program to automatically close Medicaid cases.  The procedure had been disrupting the healthcare of low-income families.  For example, over 80,000 people, mostly children, were kicked off of Medicaid.  They were reinstated within six months because they were actually eligible.  Theimpact on these families was severe.  The lawsuit was recently dismissed, but as a direct result of the suit, the state made important improvements to their recertification procedures.  For example, they: (a) changed the recertification period to every 12 months, instead of 6, easing the hurdle for eligible families to maintain their care; (b) clarified language in their notices to Medicaid recipients; (c) translated applications and notices into Spanish; (d) moved the deadline for recertification to make it easier for overworked caseworkers to process the paperwork on time; and (e) aligned the certification periods for food stamps and Medicaid so families do not have to recertify separately for each program.  These changes positively impact at least 225,000 people per year.

• In addition, the Center has worked in coalition with several organizations for the past few years to protect funding for the Medicaid program and make other improvements as necessary.  Together we:

• helped fend off reductions of Medicaid benefits and eligibility, in particular by successfully advocating for the use of creative cost reductions and alternative revenue sources instead of cutting benefits or eligibility;

• played a significant role in the effort to broaden the regulatory definition of “medically necessary care,” a standard that determines whether the more than 372,000 children and adults on Medicaid are permitted to receive requested care;

• prevented the state from illegally cutting “personal care option” benefits to poor, very elderly or disabled individuals;

• since, the ‘personal care option’ did need some of the changes proposed by the state, we developed model procedures for them to use when making changes to proposed care plans for people under the Personal Care Option.  As a result, we helped establish important additional procedural rights for approximately 6,000 significantly disabled, low-income people;

• worked through the Medicaid Behavioral Health Steering Committee to construct proposed amendments to the Salud! contracts for improving the delivery of mental health services to poor people enrolled in Medicaid; and

• worked with the Human Services Department’s Medical Assistance Division to assure that quality prevention and early intervention services are available for children through Medicaid’s Early Periodic Screening, Diagnosis and Treatment (EPSDT) program.  Our efforts led to improvements in the EPSDT program, which serves more than 88,000 low-income children.

• The Center, working in collaboration with other organizations, successfully advocated for amendments to New Mexico's TANF (welfare) law that:

• exclude the consideration of vehicles as a resource in determining eligibility for TANF; allow students enrolled in a special education program to remain eligible until age 22;

• allow parents—usually single mothers—in addition to their children, to receive Medicaid while receiving TANF;

• allow parents who were previously deemed ineligible for benefits because of a drug felony conviction to now receive Medicaid, Food Stamps, and cash assistance;

• include an expanded definition of "hardship" for consideration of exemptions from the sixty-month time limit.

• We have also worked to protect state funding for the Wage Subsidy Program, which assists parents who receive cash assistance under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program to meet the program’s work requirements.  It does so by offering employers federal subsidies to hire unemployed TANF recipients.  The subsidies help recipients get jobs, building their skills, confidence and marketability.  The Human Services Department itself draws federal dollars into the state by hiring TANF recipients to work under this program.  When the program was slated by legislators to be cut in half, the Center was able to reverse the momentum by educating legislators. The program has been fully maintained with a capacity to help 70 poor parents find work.

• Center staff successfully advocated to protect the state’s General Assistance (GA) program.  General Assistance is a critical part of our safety net, offering temporary, small cash subsidies to very vulnerable people, primarily disabled homeless persons.  Because of a lack of familiarity with the program, the Legislature was poised to cut its operations in FY07 by 30%.  We worked virtually alone to protect the program by educating decision makers and by engaging the Governor’s support.  The Legislature reversed its position and supported full operation of the General Assistance program, preventing a loss of capacity for 700 clients.

• By working with directors of the Human Services Department's Income Support Division, we have pushed them to address issues in the implementation of TANF and General Assistance that resulted in significant improvements in access and benefit delivery. 

• Center staff:
•  together with New Mexico Legal Aid, convinced the Income Support Division (ISD) to address serious problems in their Bernalillo County office. The problems included improper case handling, lack of training, and lack of supervision.  The Division eventually made major changes in the leadership and oversight of its Bernalillo County and regional offices. These changes improved the benefits delivery system for about 87,450 low-income residents of Bernalillo County;

• negotiated the adoption of regulations that allow TANF recipients with disabilities to modify their work programs in ways that take their disabilities into account; and

• spearheaded an effort with immigrant advocates and New Mexico Legal Aid to persuade the state to desist improper denial of TANF benefits to low-income immigrant women who are victims of domestic violence.

• We helped to establish a program that would have the Human Services Department coordinate with the state Tax and Revenue Department to identify those New Mexicans who qualify for Food Stamps (based on income) but are not yet receiving them.  Once these individuals are identified, they will be mailed flyers about the Food Stamp program and how to apply.   This program, once fully implemented, will notify over 100,000 low-income tax filers of their possible eligibility for food stamps and provide them with application information.

• The Center on Law and Poverty has been working with the Human Services Department on a new program that will allow poor people who currently receive Food Stamps, but who have difficulty preparing their own food—mainly some elderly, disabled or homeless people—to use their benefits in grocery store delis and restaurants.  We conducted research and provided the Department with a plan for setting up a ‘Food Stamp Restaurant Program.’  The Department is now establishing a pilot project in Albuquerque.  During the pilot project stage, food stamps usage will expand for roughly 6,000 people.

• The Center expanded Food Stamp eligibility by ensuring that New Mexico adopted all relevant options of the 2002 Farm Bill.  In most cases, the Center was the primary organization working to encourage the state to adopt these options.  The options increased eligibility for Food Stamps by providing transitional Food Stamp benefits to help poor families as they leave the New Mexico Works (TANF) program and transition to work, and by allowing homeless households to deduct shelter expenses from their net income when calculating their Food Stamp eligibility.

• Through its monitoring of the Food Stamp program, the Center has corrected deficiencies that were causing harm to very low-income New Mexicans.  For example, the Center pushed the state to change its regulations and provide Food Stamps to some low-income pregnant women until the third trimester of their pregnancy, as mandated by federal law.  We also advocated for improved access to Food Stamps by immigrants, and for federally-funded reimbursements for job-search expenses for 31,900 poor Food Stamp participation.

• The Center led or participated in the litigation of several lawsuits with significant positive impact on the lives of tens of thousands of low-income people, including:

• Taylor v. Johnson, which required Governor Johnson to stop implementing his unconstitutional version of welfare reform put into place by circumventing the legislature. This victory set the stage for the legislature to develop the New Mexico Works Act.

• Hancock v. Johnson, which secured $1,000,000 in retroactive cash benefits for welfare recipients whose benefits were improperly terminated or reduced by Governor Johnson's unconstitutional welfare program.

• Weaver v. Human Services Department, which required the Department to repeal a time limit on general assistance for adults with disabilities.

• Hatten-Gonzales v. Valdez, which simplified the application process for public assistance and had a number of additional related benefits.