CHC chief executive officer Juan N. Babauta earlier aired concern about public health preventive programs which he said should not be totally out of the government’s hands.
Inos told reporters yesterday that in order to address this concern, the whole law should be revisited and “so we can eventually put things in perspective.”
Now that the public healthcare system is expected to be run like a business, Inos said, “I think we should not lose sight of the main purpose of the corporation which relates to the need to address acute and long-term healthcare as opposed to preventive measures.”
He noted that Public Law 16-51, which created the corporation, was implemented just recently. “So we have been experiencing some unintended consequences as a result of implementation,” he said.
It would be best if the corporation officials and the government can “put their heads together and take a new look at…the law,” he added.
If it means “carving out” some of the functions that have been transferred to the corporation, “maybe we have got to do that. But again that will require changes in the law,” he said.
Inos agrees with Babauta who earlier pointed out that federal grants are usually directed to the government rather than to an autonomous agency because the grantee is always the state government.
“The least that can be done to avoid a problem is to execute a sub-grant agreement between the CNMI government and the corporation which will then operate on that basis,” Inos added.
He said “it can be worked out with a memorandum of understanding, but the more ‘controlling’ document would be a sub-grant agreement where all the responsibilities of the grantee (the government) are basically transferred to the sub-grantee (the corporation) without relieving the grantee of the major responsibility if there are costs associated with it.”
Asked if he foresees any funding problem for preventive programs now that the healthcare corporation is on its own, Inos said: “If you want to run it, you have to figure out how you’re going to fund it. If you can’t fund it, then say ‘I don’t want to have it.’ ”
