The Human Services Department says a Gallup hospital is returning a $5 million overpayment by the state from a program that helps hospitals cover health care for uninsured and poor New Mexicans.
Department spokesman Matt Kennicott said Friday that an "error in paperwork" caused the agency to provide Rehoboth McKinley Christian Hospital with about twice as much as it was supposed to receive.
The hospital alerted the agency to the error and will return the overpayment.
Kennicott said no similar overpayments happened with other hospitals.
The state plans to allocate the $5 million to other hospitals.
At issue is a more than $60 million program that helps reimburse roughly two dozen mostly rural hospitals for uncompensated health care for the uninsured.
Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.