A Medicaid policy analyst is urging New Mexico officials to seek out federal matching funds to help pay for state-sponsored home visits by nurses and educators to families with infants and toddlers.
Policy analyst Kay Johnson told state lawmakers and the Secretary of Children, Families and Families Department on Wednesday that New Mexico could receive as much as 70 cents in federal funding for every dollar spent on home visits by nurses and councilors on early-childhood development. The state is directly spending $7.7 million on home visits next year.
The Thornburg Foundation hired Johnson to study access to Medicaid funding for New Mexico's home-visit program that contracts with private providers. She found as many as 15 states receive federal matching funds for their home visit efforts.
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