Morning Word: State Sues Presbyterian

By Matt Grubs

AG sues Presbyterian
Attorney General Hector Balderas says Presbyterian Health Plan and two related companies deliberately and systematically falsified Medicaid deductions and credits for four years. As a result, he says, Presbyterian avoided paying tens of millions of dollars in premium taxes to the state. The companies deny the claim.

Sick bars

People who have health insurance when they get released from prison or jail are

far less likely to end up back there

. Study after study confirms that. Most of the time, that insurance is Medicaid. It's often cheaper than housing inmates, but changes to the federal plan for Medicaid could mean that programs to sign inmates up for health care will slip far enough down the list of priorities that they won't get funded.

Kid sister

The Santa Fe International Folk Art Market is this weekend. Museum Hill will be packed with 160 artists and 20,000 people. But a month ago, the group that puts on the market held its first-ever sister folk art market in Arlington, Texas. It's part of

a plan to expand

the market's impact on both artists and consumers into perhaps half a dozen cities by 2025.

Immigration policies haven't slowed market artists

Santa Fe's festival is still the big draw for the people who buy and make folk art, though. The International Folk Art Alliance says shifting Trump administration immigration rules

haven't stopped artists

from getting into the country. Better than 9 out 10 artists invited to the festival are getting to Santa Fe, a rate that's on par with years past.

'Few, if any'

That would be in reference to cash-handling policies at the Genoveva Chavez Community Center. The city's flagship recreation center got

hit pretty hard with an internal audit

released yesterday. The review didn't find evidence of cash theft, but said the procedures at the GCCC are ripe for it.

Closed county meetings draw fire

Planned closed-door meetings between Santa Fe County Commissioners and federal, state and tribal representatives

are being criticized

by the state's most notable open-government group. The New Mexico Foundation for Open Government says the meetings, which are being held as part of a decades-old water-rights lawsuit settlement, should be open to the public according to state law. 

Still hot

It's going to be another hot day today as the monsoonal moisture pattern we all know and love struggles to get a foothold in New Mexico. There's still a

chance of showers

 and probably some nice clouds this afternoon. It's

allegedly

going to cool down into the weekend.

Thanks for reading! The Word thinks it feels like a pancakes day. With coffee. And syrup. Maybe coffee-flavored syrup? Is that a thing?
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