THE Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. is requesting $3,487,754 from the central government for the medical referral program.
In her letter to Gov. Arnold I. Palacios on Tuesday, CHCC Chief Executive Officer Esther Muna, PhD, MHA, said the CNMI’s only hospital needs “to ensure adequate funding for the medical referral program for the second quarter of fiscal year 2023.”
Muna said as CHCC approaches the end of the first month of the second quarter of FY 2023, and pending any act of appropriation to fund the existing medical referral program, “we are reaching the point of fully expending all appropriated funds from the previous fiscal year.”
She provided the governor a report indicating that CHCC had a “cash carry-over” of $2,998,647.98 at the beginning of FY 2023 and those funds are expected to be fully expended by the end of January 2023.
CHCC’s Health System Network Program report on quarterly costs shows that the medical referral program needs $347,709 for personnel; $1,123,196 in rental accommodations; $372,738 in airfare; $330,480 in subsistence; $1.4 million in oncology drugs; and $100,000 in “all other” expenses, for a total of $3.6 million.
However, CHCC said there is a projected Medicaid reimbursement of $186,369 so the total amount needed for the second quarter will be $3,487,754.
Muna also informed the governor that CHCC processed 718 referral patients, 32 of whom are actively receiving services.
She said CHCC’s projected need of $3.4 million “considers the end of the Medicaid Presumptive Eligibility on March 31, 2023, and the subsequent increase of the uninsured and underinsured.”
Esther Muna
