Patient numbers experience highest gain in program history despite NMDOH enrollment adjustments

(Albuquerque) – Patient enrollment in New Mexico’s Medical Cannabis Program reached 45,347 as of November 30, 2017, a 77 percent increase and a 19,650 net patient gain over the same period last year.

On an annual basis, this is the highest percentage gain and the greatest net patient increase since the inception of the program in 2007.

Concurrently, the program’s patient count has also experienced ongoing enrollment adjustments by New Mexico Department of Health (NMDOH) officials, which has been attributed by the NMDOH to “legacy data” being removed from the database. The department has disenrolled thousands of patients from September 2017 to October 2017 for the third consecutive year.

Based on documents obtained through an Inspection of Public Records Act (IPRA) request, it is believed  more patient data was removed than indicated by the net month-to-month differences. Written communication between NMDOH and the vendor responsible for program data confirm ongoing reporting concerns

“The challenge we run into, as we have stated several times, is these reports keep having staggering changes in numbers,” Andrea Sundberg, NMDOH Patient Services Manager, stated in an email obtained by an IPRA. “Last year we had a change of 5,000 active enrollees in a one month period that nobody could ever explain. Then last month [September 2017] we ran the report and the numbers by county and condition were different than the active count by over 7,000,” Sundberg continued. “These type of issues two years into the system are not appropriate and only lead to greater confusion about our valid data.”

Despite the frequent restatement of data by the NMDOH, the rapidly expanding Medical Cannabis Program continues to exceed projections and show significant year-over-year growth. The program remains on track to reach near 50,000 patients by December 31, 2017.

“Tremendous growth is never by mere chance,” said Duke Rodriguez, CEO and President of Ultra Health®. “Fortunately, the impressive growth of the medical cannabis program is the result of the industry’s effort to improve the convenience, quality and affordability of cannabis to all qualified New Mexicans.”
A compilation of the Medical Cannabis Program Patient Statistics Reports from 2012 to November 2017 can be found here and verified here on the NMDOH website.