Vasquez joins HMS controversy as healthcare concerns grow in southwest New Mexico

U.S. Rep. Gabe Vasquez has stepped into the growing fight over Hidalgo Medical Services, pushing a local dispute over staff turnover and service quality into a wider question of who is watching the region’s main safety-net provider.

At an invitation-only town hall Saturday evening in Silver City, former providers, former employees, patients and area elected officials gathered to discuss the future of HMS, the system many residents in Hidalgo County rely on for primary care and other services. The meeting did not function as a formal hearing or board session, but Vasquez’s involvement marked a sharp escalation in a controversy that has already touched clinicians, county officials and patients across southwest New Mexico.

That matters in Hidalgo County because HMS is not a peripheral clinic. HMS says it began in 1980 as a National Health Service Corps site and took its current form in 1995 in Lordsburg with $35,000 in New Mexico Rural Primary Health Care Act funding. Affiliate materials describe it as the only Federally Qualified Health Center in both Hidalgo and Grant counties, serving more than 15,000 unduplicated patients and clients each year. In a sparsely populated border region, that makes any instability at HMS more than an internal management issue. It can mean longer waits, fewer appointments and more travel for specialty or behavioral health care.

The pressure on HMS has been building for more than a year. In May 2025, 13 medical professionals signed a public letter of no confidence in the leadership and called for CEO Dan Otero to be replaced. A town hall on HMS issues later that month drew patients and community members, but HMS leaders did not attend. In July, the health system issued a statement reaffirming its commitment to quality care and community service, while the board said it had reviewed the provider letter and would not discuss personnel matters publicly.

The conflict widened again in August 2025, when HMS terminated its agreement to operate behavioral health services out of the Tu Casa facility. That move came after public criticism from county leaders and added another layer of concern for families already trying to navigate primary care, counseling and senior services through one regional provider. Otero has served as CEO since February 2016.

Vasquez’s entry into the dispute could carry real consequences for oversight, trust and possibly funding if federal lawmakers start pressing for answers about staffing, service quality and whether HMS can continue meeting the needs of patients in Lordsburg, Animas and the wider Bootheel. For Hidalgo County residents, the issue is no longer just who runs HMS. It is whether the health system people depend on every day can still deliver reliable care.