Heralded as the Medicaid Guru New Mexico Crucially Needed, and After Being Paid $550,000, Dana Flannery Quits

Less than two years as New Mexico’s ‘official’ Medicaid Director, Dana Flannery claims the demands and travel requirements of the role led to her decision to resign last month.

“I am thrilled to welcome Dana Flannery as the new Medicaid Director. Dana brings to the table her extensive expertise and innovative vision in public health, which are crucial for advancing our mission and goals,” so stated the Kari Armijo, cabinet secretary for the New Mexico Human Services Department (HSD), via a press release in late February 2024.

Well, it seems ‘the thrill is gone,’ at least for Flannery.

She quietly announced in November at a quarterly meeting of the state’s Medicaid Advisory Committee that travel requirements and apparently other demands of the job were too much for her to handle.

A lot of hype from the administration went into announcing Flannery’s appointment, with some reporting announcing a new Medicaid boss was in town.

The administration’s media spin was likely an effort to gloss over months of a Medicaid scandal that occurred about a year earlier when Armijo became the henchwoman for Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham’s controversial liquidation of a properly followed bid process, known as a request for proposals (RFP), for the state’s new health plan known as Turquoise Care.

But Flannery was not that “new” to the matters swirling around that scandal.

When Armijo and the Lujan Grisham administration announced Flannery as the new Medicaid Director they also made a big deal of Flannery’s extensive background.

But curiously, there was no mention that Armijo and the Governor’s team had engaged Flannery as a consultant through a series of three “no-bid” professional service contracts about a year earlier, between early March 2023 (close to when the New Mexico State Ethics Commission began to investigate the HSD Turquoise Care RFP scandal), and November of 2023.

The three contracts, according to state summary records of purchases, were each at, or under, the amount of $60,000.

Anything over that amount is supposed to go out to bid.

And the state’s procurement law also states, “Procurement requirements shall not be artificially divided so as to constitute a small purchase under this section.”

The first $60,000 contract is recorded on the state summary record, as being issued March 3, 2023; the second $60,000 contract as being issued July 19, 2023; and the third as being issued November 6, 2023. (The total paid out by the state seems to be about $178,880, according to the summary record.)

(The Candle is waiting on a response from the state to an Inspection of Public Records Act request for a copy of each of the contracts and related documents for deliverables.)

Governor Raises Pay of Medicaid Director by $79,976, to $210,000

As The Candle reported in 2024, when Flannery was hired to be the Medicaid Director a year after the HSD Turquoise Care RFP scandal broke in the news, the Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham increased the salary of the job by a whopping $79,976 a year, raising it to $210,000 a year – an amount close to a cabinet secretary level position.

When Flannery resigned in December, the salary had risen even more to $224,952 a year.

Between the time Flannery became the New Mexico Medicaid Director and when she resigned, The Candle has reported on the failure of her Medicaid team to act on a series of important tasks, such as:

1.) submitting an important legislatively approved rate increase request to the Centers on Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) last year so that poorly paid direct care workers assisting disabled New Mexicans could receive a modest raise;

2.) Clawing back more than $168 million that the federal governments Office of Inspector General identified as overpayments to Managed Care Organizations serving New Mexicans (and for which the federal government may claw back almost $120 million of its share over-payments from the state); and

3.) Making sure that a long planned for Rate Study for services to the Developmentally Disabled was completed by June 2025, and which has yet to be made available to the legislature so the state can provide back up to seek increases for those workers who provide direct care to some of the most vulnerable New Mexicans.

Special Consideration?

Last month, The Candle received unconfirmed information that the Governor and Armijo permitted Flannery to alternately work from her home in Arizona every other week – despite the Governor revoking remote work as an alternative for other state employees.

(The Candle is waiting on a response from the state to an Inspection of Public Records Act request for a copy of All records requesting and granting/approving/permitting Dana Flannery to travel out of state during her tenure/employment as the New Mexico Medicaid Director, including: 1a.) Any records providing a blanket or general permission granted for routine travel of Dana Flannery to a residence out of the state of New Mexico; and, 1b.) Records which would be relative to any individual requests and/or standing arrangement for Dana Flannery to perform her duties as Medicaid Director and/or telework temporarily or intermittently from an out of state residence or out of state office…) 

So, what happened that led to Flannery’s resignation?

Flannery, based upon calculations from state payroll records The Candle received from the State Personnel Office, Flannery was paid approximately $380,000, in salary for about 21 months of work.

And, as reported above, she also was paid about $178,000, for the three ($60,000) 2023, professional service consulting contracts with the state.

That total the State of New Mexico paid Flannery ended up being more than $550,000.

Over ten days ago, The Candle emailed Flannery a series of questions regarding her tenure, her three 2023 contracts with the state of New Mexico, and her work arrangements as a state employee.

She has not provided any answers.

Hopefully, Flannery will reconsider and respond to the emailed questions.

There will be more reporting regarding this matter in the next few weeks, once we receive a response from the Inspection of Public Records Act requests. – and hopefully a response from Flannery.