2 weeks Ago
Santa Fe is home to many retirees, some of them former energy workers. A home health care company is setting up shop near the Santa Fe Place mall to better serve them. CNS Cares, a company that provides home health care and benefits assistance to former energy workers and veterans across the country, opens the doors to its Santa Fe office Thursday, a little more than a week after National Day of Remembrance for Nuclear Weapons Program Workers on Oct.
30. Established in 2006 and headquartered in Grand Junction, Colo., the company was founded by nurses in response to the increase in former energy workers being diagnosed with and federally compensated for illnesses related to their work.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, Los Alamos National Laboratory is listed among the top 20 facilities where the largest amount of benefits have been paid under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act.
Applications representing 13,660 cases, or 8,197 individual workers, have been filed, with a little more than $2 million in compensation and medical bills paid out since the federal program’s inception. CNS Cares, formerly Critical Nurse Staffing LLC before rebranding in 2021, has helped many of the state’s former energy workers connect with benefits since it came to New Mexico about 14 years ago. Its first office opened in Albuquerque, followed by offices in Grants, Las Vegas, N.
M. — this is the office moving to Santa Fe — and Hillsboro, which has since moved to Truth or Consequences. With a New Mexico team of over 400 employees, including 78 nurses and 307 caregivers, CNS serves about 225 clients across the state.
One of them is Rio Rancho resident and former miner Alex Griego. Griego, 80, comes from a long line of miners. Born and raised in Grants, Griego went to college in California before returning to Grants in 1965 when the Grants Mineral Belt was booming with activity and job opportunities.
“During the boom years, Grants was known as the uranium capital of the world,” said the former mining engineer. “Everybody was in there, and there was a time when you could have a falling-out with your boss in the morning and have another job that same afternoon.” Griego worked in underground mining for 17 years and surface coal mining for 22 years.
Griego said that while they weren’t completely in the dark, he also wasn’t fully aware of the dangers of the materials to which he was being exposed. “We weren’t totally unaware of it, but you don’t really think about it,” he said, emphasizing his focus was on providing for his family. “You’ve got a job to do.
You go down and you do it. And then later on, you see guys that are coughing and this and that and the other, next thing you know.” Many former miners he knew have died from their work-related illnesses or are in poor health, he said.
“Luckily, this program came along and I was lucky enough to get on with CNS,” said Griego, who joined the program in 2017. Griego said he was hesitant at first because he didn’t think his health issues, primarily pulmonary impairments, were as bad as some friends of his. It was friends in the program and his wife, Maria, who noticed his occasional wheezing, who encouraged him to try it, and it was the knowledge and resources of the CNS staff that affirmed his choice, Griego said.
“I can’t say anything bad about CNS,” Griego said. “I know guys that have changed caretakers a lot. At the drop of a hat, they change.
I have never changed. I started with CNS and I’m still with CNS and I guess I’ll stay with CNS until I croak.” In order to receive care from CNS, clients must have a U.
S. Department of Labor “white card,” which provides medical benefits, including in-home health care, doctors’ visits, copays and more to former energy workers who have been approved for federal compensation for certain illnesses. If a former energy worker thinks they may be eligible but does not currently have a card, CNS can provide resources to help them connect with the right doctors, complete the testing needed, obtain medical records and employment documentation, and file a claim with the Labor Department.
Once the white card is obtained, clients can receive care that includes nurse visits, assistance from a care manager and a home health. CNS encourages family members to become the home health aide and hires them as employees. Business Development Manager Sarah Medina said this is different from many home health care organizations that hire people as independent contractors, since the CNS aide/family member is eligible for benefits, overtime pay and paid time off.
“You can’t beat that with a stick,” said Griego, whose wife is his aide. CNS General Manager Sharlett Martinez said the company will retain its Las Vegas clients in the move to Santa Fe, which will place the office closer to a larger population of clients in Española, more potential clients through Santa Fe’s population of LANL retirees and to the physicians, hospice centers and medical resources in Santa Fe. “We’re here to support them,” Martinez said.
Alex and Maria Griego, who now live happily in Rio Rancho closer to their children and grandchildren, said they encourage other former energy workers navigating work-related health challenges to reach out to CNS. “The main thing is, if you’ve worked in some of those areas, is to try to get on,” Maria Griego said. “You might not make it, but it doesn’t hurt trying.
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