Easter Seals El Mirador Sues New Mexico Human Services Department Over Behavioral Health Audit

On August 5, 2014, Easter Seals El Mirador (ESELM) sued the New Mexico Human Services Department (HSD) alleging that HSD acted in bad faith when it froze Medicaid reimbursements for behavioral health services following a 2013 audit of 15 behavioral health provider organizations, including ESELM. HSD said the audit results indicated a “credible allegation of fraud” against each of the organizations and forwarded the audit results to the New Mexico Office of the Attorney General (AG) for full investigation. In May 2014, the AG cleared ESELM, but HSD failed to lift ESELM’s Medicaid pay hold for $671,000 in . . .