Many of the CEOs who were removed from their positions at local behavioral health providers were employees of a for-profit company from Arizona, according to The Albuquerque Journal.
Tax documents reveal a network of relationships between the top managers of six local providers and Providence Service Corporation of Tucson. The local providers paid Providence and an affiliated non-profit for administrative support services including Medicaid billing services.
Fifteen local providers had their Medicaid funding frozenearlier this year after a state commissioned audit found evidence of fraud and mismanagement. Officials with New Mexico's Human Services Department, which commissioned the audit, said the relationships with Providence appear to create multiple conflicts of interest.
A CEO of one of the de-funded local providers, Roque Garcia of Las Cruces, defended the business model, saying it is legal and designed to support the continued success of small non-profit behavioral health providers.