ESTABLISHING a Health Network Program in the CNMI continues to be a priority for the CNMI’s lone hospital.
The Commonwealth Healthcare Corporation advocated for House Bill 22-77, which was amended by the Senate and passed by both houses of the 22nd Legislature. The bill proposes to create a Health Network Program and provide for the “orderly transition” of medical referral services to CHCC, and write off medical referral promissory notes.
CHCC Chief Executive Officer Esther L. Muna said the program would not be considered a travel agency or a travel assistance program, but would be primarily focused on providing access to medical referral patients.
“We didn’t want it to be considered a travel agency, but some people think of it as a travel agency, so we didn’t want to call it a travel assistance program. That’s not what it is. It’s really trying to get you access to care that’s not available here,” Muna told local reporters in a media briefing last week.
She noted that CNMI Attorney General Edward B. Manibusan issued a legal opinion that the medical referral program belongs to CHCC.
“But there are a lot of provisions, I think, that need to be written in the law, and so that was the reason why [former] Rep. Tina Sablan put that in there [in the bill] after a discussion with AG Manibusan,” said Muna.
The bill would also write off outstanding balances of medical referral promissory notes.
Muna earlier informed lawmakers that CHCC does not intend to collect on the promissory notes that the Medical Referral Services Office entered into with its beneficiaries.
One of the key provisions of the House bill states that the Health Network Program should be operated “in a manner that does not exceed the CNMI general fund appropriation for [the program]. If appropriated funding for the Health Network Program is exhausted prior to the end of the fiscal year, CHCC shall submit a request to the Governor and the Legislature for supplemental appropriations.”
Esther Muna
