New Mexico behavioral health committee closes in on goal of approving 13 regional health plans

The committee tasked with rebuilding New Mexico’s behavioral healthcare infrastructure has approved all but two regional plans, the committee chair told a panel of state lawmakers Tuesday.

Nick Boukas, the committee chair and director of the state Health Care Authority’s Behavioral Health Services Division, told lawmakers on the interim Legislative Finance Committee that he and his colleagues have signed off on 11 of the state’s proposed 13 regional behavioral healthcare plans.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed Senate Bill 3, known as the Behavioral Health Reform and Investment Act, into law in 2025. It created 13 behavioral health regions mirrored after the state’s 13 judicial districts. Local officials with counties, tribes and cities within each region have crafted unique plans to identify their communities’ biggest gaps in behavioral healthcare and to set goals for addressing them.

The law is aimed at bringing providers back to New Mexico, particularly rural areas, after former Republican Gov. Susana Martinez accused several providers of fraud, which led to a mass departure.

While needs vary from region to region, Boukas said that they have largely held four priorities in common: expanding access to behavioral health treatment and recovery services; strengthening youth, family, school and caregiver support; addressing housing and transportation; and building and retaining a behavioral health workforce.

New Mexico lawmakers express frustration with long process to rebuild behavioral health system

A Tuesday LFC brief says the state invested $565 million for behavioral health services in 2025, yet has “little data” to indicate whether outcomes are improving or whether “access is better today than it was when the state began making these investments.” So far, the 13 plans carry a price tag of $110 million, according to the brief.

Some lawmakers in attendance expressed frustration over the slowgoing process, which has become a common theme in this summer’s legislative hearings on the matter.

“We’ve spent a whole lot of money with zero results yet,” Rep. Mark Duncan (R-Kirtland) told Boukas.

Boukas told lawmakers that the seemingly slow nature of SB3’s implementation is to be expected.

“When I say that this is working, it’s that we’re getting folks to start talking to each other. None of the programs have rolled out yet to where we can start collecting data,” he said.

The Behavioral Health Reform and Investment Act Executive Committee is scheduled to meet in Santa Fe on Oct. 6. Boukas previously told Source NM he hopes to have all 13 regional plans approved by the end of the year.