By Haidee V. Eugenio
Variety Assistant Editor

THE Department of Public Health’s decision to temporarily stop providing a $20 daily subsistence allowance for medical referral patients while on outpatient status and for family/friend escorts while at an off-island medical facility is now a permanent part of the Medical Referral Program Rules and Regulations.
Public Health cited a serious budget deficit when it issued on Oct. 25 an “emergency amendment” to the regulations, to remain in effect for 120 days or at least until March.
The department proposed to make the emergency amendments a permanent part of the medical referral rules.
Public Health Secretary Joseph Kevin Villagomez, in a notice published in the April 16 Commonwealth Register, said the proposed amendments were “adopted without changes.”
Villagomez earlier said he was “forced to make necessary adjustments on expenditures” within the department “because of the severe fiscal situation” of the CNMI government, particularly the medical referral program.
“Eliminating subsistence has no negative effect on the medical outcome of a patient’s condition or ailment,” he said.
The $20 daily subsistence allowance to outpatients on medical referral and family/friend escorts used to be provided by the government through Public Health’s medical referral program.
Villagomez said by eliminating the subsistence allowance of both patients and family/friend escorts, “finite resources can be re-directed to more critical area within the hospital without compromising the medical condition of the referral patient.”