Movement Growth Comes as Legislators Support Corporate Accountability Amendment to House Bill 99; Corporate Healthcare Lobby Spending Skyrockets

SANTA FE, N.M. – Several social justice organizations signed on to the patient advocacy movement led by New Mexico Safety Over Profit (NMSOP). A letter sent to legislators follows powerful medical malpractice survivor testimony during a Friday hearing for House Bill 99. A press conference after the hearing highlighted patient stories in more detail than allowed within the committee's public comment time limit. Those stories can be viewed here.

New Mexico based organizations including Indigenous Women Rising, the New Mexico Working Families Party, New Mexico Native Vote, Equality New Mexico, and Organizers in the Land of Enchantment write in the letter: 

“New Mexico has long been targeted by extractive industries that profit from our needs and limited resources. Today, private equity is the latest extraction; they are buying up more hospitals here than anywhere else in the country, a model linked to higher patient harm, physician burnout, and community disinvestment.

Combine this with a national physician shortage - made worse in New Mexico by low wages, our rural makeup, and decades of failed policies that have underfunded schools and behavioral health services, creating quality-of-life challenges, making it harder to recruit and retain physicians than in other states. It is clear why our healthcare system is in crisis.”

The full organizational sign on letter can be found here.

“Our movement has always been about social justice. It is about amplifying the voices of those at the intersection; the people who are already struggling to get ahead who then go to the doctor or a hospital, somewhere they think they can trust people to have their best interests at heart. Yet too many leave with their worlds shattered because corporate healthcare has cut costs and corners at the expense of their health, or of their spouses, children, and loved ones,” Johana Bencomo, Executive Director of NMSOP said.  

In the House Health and Human Services hearing for House Bill 99, a vital patient safety amendment was adopted and later upheld by a bipartisan committee vote of 7-3. Representative Liz Thomsons’ corporate accountability amendment allows a jury to hold large hospital corporations responsible for endangering the safety of New Mexico patients, while also protecting doctors and small rural hospitals by providing caps on punitive damages.

Reporting and research by New Mexico In Depth shows that, only from what is currently publicly available, Presbyterian Health Services and Presbyterian Health Plan are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on New Mexico radio and television advertising to influence outcomes in favor of their bottom line. SOP research into FCC reports found $178,000 in spending by Presbyterian through February 20th, 2026. In addition to advertising spending, they gave more to candidate campaigns than any other company in December 2025, just prior to the start of the legislative session. 

Bencomo added, “Healthcare corporations are spending big to divert attention and skirt their responsibility to do right by victims of medical malpractice. There is still time in the session for policymakers to reject false ‘reforms’ that limit accountability and instead pursue real, systemic solutions that protect patients, workers, and communities.” 

For more information about NMSOP’s legislative priorities, visit NMSOP.org.

About New Mexico Safety Over Profit

New Mexico Safety Over Profit is a survivor-led advocacy organization working to ensure New Mexico’s health care system puts people before profit. NMSOP advances data-driven, solution-oriented policies that reduce patient harm, strengthen the health care workforce, and protect New Mexicans’ constitutional right to accountability when preventable harm occurs.