In his written testimony to the House Committee on Health, Education and Welfare, Jay Solly principal consultant of Marianas Consulting, said the CNMI scored “18” with “1” being the highest and “25” being in the poor/emergency level in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Professional Shortage Area or HPSA score.
Guam scored “8” and the Philippines “4” or “5” because of its internationally recognized “medical tourism.”
“It is clear that the CNMI is among the most underserved areas in the entire country. There are Indian reservations that have better access to healthcare providers. The primary care shortage is escalating at a time when the need for primary physicians is greater than ever,” said Solly and noted that the islands’ aging population is increasing that requires more primary care.
Solly said many rural areas in the states are facing the same health care challenges as the CNMI — particularly that of recruiting doctors.
He said U.S. medical students tend to choose more highly compensated specialties.
Many doctors are still motivated to work for the islands but several factors affect their stay on the islands.
“The community seems to have an adverse relationship with mainland health professionals…. CHC doctors have endured roughshod contracts and inefficient hiring practices, slow or delayed payments and sometimes arbitrary terminations. One well-known example was a nephrologist with many years of experience on island earning $230,000 who was let-go because he simply cost too much; they wanted to cut his pay nearly 30 percent,” Solly said.
“It appears that CHC leadership thought they could get this low-supply, high demand specialist on the cheap,” he added.
The consultant said unless the CNMI adequately reward physicians for the enormous training they took to deliver quality health care services to the community, problems with recruitment will persist.
“Unless real and tangible incentives to attract new healthcare professionals to the remoteness of the CNMI are consistently applied and promoted, little can be done to address the rural workforce issues,” said Solly.
He added that the CNMI also stands to lose benefits from healthcare-related grants unless its elected leaders do something about it.
He said Northern Marianas Congressman Gregorio Sablan should join the U.S. House of Representatives Rural Healthcare Coalition or the Congressional Rural Caucus.
Solly said Hawaii Congressman Neil Abercrombie and Alaska Congressman Dan Young “can attest to the benefits of federal healthcare dollars for underserved populations.”
