New study finds New Mexico underestimates, fails to investigate federal food assistance fraud

The Health Care Authority's inspector general investigated only 3% of nearly 10,000 SNAP fraud tips received between 2018 and 2023.

By: Patrick Lohmann

Outlets: Source New Mexico

Published: June 16, 2026

Words: 786

Last Updated: 1 month, 1 week ago

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New Mexico legislative analysts tasked with assessing fraud among state recipients of federal food assistance reported Tuesday that the state’s low fraud rate may be misleading and stems from a failure to collect data and investigate fraud allegations.

The Legislative Finance Committee’s 78-page report, six months in the making, resulted from a $50,000 appropriation Republican state legislators secured in November. At the time, the Legislature had just agreed to allocate up to

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