By MERILEE DANNEMANN
Triple Spaced Again
© 2025 by Merilee Dannemann

Katy Duhigg blew up the interstate compacts discussion. Again.

This was a few weeks ago, and the latest news reports indicate that the discussion is back on track. But one critical question is, who put Duhigg on the committee?

The interstate compacts I’m referring to are related to access to healthcare for New Mexicans. Medical professionals, including physicians, can legally practice their profession only in a state where they are licensed. For a doctor licensed in another state to do anything professional in New Mexico, even giving a medical opinion over the phone, the doctor’s professional status would have to be recognized by New Mexico through a compact, which would have to be approved by our legislature.

Interstate compacts exist for a number of healthcare related professions, not only doctors, and most of them are approved by most US states, but New Mexico has approved only one, which legalizes nurses. Legislators have been arguing about the other compacts for a few years.

The legislators who oppose approving the compacts seem to be either trial lawyers or trial lawyer groupies who want to make sure New Mexico lawyers are not restricted from suing the doctors.

In addition to the physician compact, there are compacts covering professions such as occupational therapy, physical therapy, audiology, dentistry and dental hygiene, emergency medical services and several others.

Duhigg, Democratic state senator from District 10, was instrumental in stopping the compacts from passing during the 2025 regular session. These compacts are interstate agreements and have to be substantially the same in every state. In the 2025 regular session, Duhigg introduced enough amendments to make it impossible for the legislation to pass.

The compacts were blocked from consideration during the special session in October because allegedly there wasn’t enough time, even though legislators had had a few years to study the issue.

Then an ad hoc committee was created to study the compacts again in preparation for the upcoming 2026 session. This being New Mexico, Duhigg was put on this committee.

Duhigg is a lawyer and her law firm, Curtis & Co., lists medical malpractice as its first area of specialization. “We dedicate a significant portion of our practice to medical malpractice law,” says the company’s website.

The need for access to out-of-state doctors has received so much public attention that I’m optimistic we have a chance of getting a few of these compacts passed in 2026. This is just one of several policy changes that are urgently needed, including reforming our medical malpractice law (which I have written about several times) and eliminating the gross receipts tax on health care services.

New Mexico’s shortage of doctors is already at a crisis level and getting worse all the time. Of the state’s 33 counties, 32 are designated as Healthcare Professional Shortage Areas. So who are our legislators listening to and what are we mere citizens going to do about it?

Reader, you might want to call your own legislators before the session starts and tell them how important access to doctors is to you. You can find their contact information at nmlegis.gov.

Don’t wait until the session, because then they’re harder to reach. Our state senators will be up for election again in 2028. Soon, it will be time to start thinking about replacing a few legislators who have created this unnecessary crisis by imposing obstacles to New Mexicans’ needs for essential services like health care. Meanwhile, the leadership needs to step up and take responsibility for getting this legislation passed.

Editor’s note: Merilee Dannemann’s columns are posted at www.triplespacedagain.com. Comments are invited through that website.