New Mexico Mental Health Audit Was Altered By Officials

By Tristan Ahtone
November 30, 2013

Over the summer, the New Mexico Human Services Department froze medicaid payments to a dozen mental health providers due to allegations of fraud, and those agencies were eventually taken over by Arizona companies.

The basis for those allegations: an audit conducted by an out-of-state company called PCG. That audit was never seen by the public or even by those accused of fraud.

But in October, a heavily redacted version was released, and in it, PCG "did not uncover what it would consider to be credible allegations of fraud."

Here's the problem: that line was removed from a version given to State Auditor Hector Balderas after a court order earlier this year.

"New Mexico sent several million dollars on this audit report," said Balderas. "So it could be a very dangerous slippery slope if we start having officials freely alter documents without any type of authority and in violation of court order."

A Human Services Department spokesman says the agency is the "only entity that can determine credible allegations of fraud against a Medicaid provider." Because of that, State officials asked PCG to remove the no-credible-allegations-statement.

The State Auditors Office says it has not concluded whether altered versions of the audit were also given to law enforcement agencies, and has gone back to court.