Federal scrutiny of bargains struck between Santa Fe County and Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center in 2009 could result in the state or the hospital having to pay back about $9.7 million worth of federal funding. According to a draft audit issued by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the agency has identified irregularities in the way local governments and eight hospitals around the New Mexico came up with money used to obtain matching federal dollars. The federal agency has determined that about $21.7 million worth of payments made by local government entities in New Mexico did not comply with rules that govern the Sole Community Provider fund program, in which the federal government matches money—at a 3-to-1 ratio—put up by local governments for indigent healthcare.
