MEDICAL referral services should be completely under the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. at the beginning of the new fiscal year or on Oct. 1, 2022, Finance Secretary David DLG Atalig said.
He provided this update to the House Ways and Means Committee during a budget hearing on Wednesday, adding that Finance and the Office of the Governor are in constant communication with CHCC throughout the transition period.
“It’s a work in progress, but definitely by the new fiscal year, 100% of [medical referral] operations, contracts, hotels, transportation, airfares, and all that, will be with CHCC,” Atalig said.
“We are communicating. There is no hindrance in the program transition,” he added.
He said CHCC wants to “do it slowly” while reviewing internal desk audits, the operation of the medical referral office and its ongoing contracts.
Prior to the completion of the transition, the administration is responsible for any unpaid bills.
In May 2013, due to funding issues, then-Gov. Eloy S. Inos signed an executive order transferring the medical referral program from CHCC to the governor’s office.
In June 2021, Attorney General Edward Manibusan issued a legal opinion stating that the medical referral program belongs to CHCC.
Recently, the House of Representatives unanimously passed House Bill 22-77, which calls for the orderly transition of medical referral services from the Office of the Governor to CHCC.
The bill, which now heads to the Senate, would create the “CNMI Medical Travel Assistance Program” within CHCC.
One of the bill’s key provisions states that the Medical Travel Assistance Program will be operated in a manner “that does not exceed the CNMI general fund appropriation for the…Program. Notwithstanding the emergency powers of the Governor granted by Article III, Section 10 of the CNMI Constitution, if, in any fiscal year, appropriated funding for the Medical Travel Assistance Program is exhausted prior to the end of the fiscal year, the MTAP shall cease operations until additional funding is appropriated by the CNMI Legislature from the general revenues of the CNMI.”
