Reyes said aside from the cost of hiring, the CNMI is currently competing with the mainland and other countries which are also actively recruiting for medical doctors.
He said it is harder to attract doctors because Saipan is “quite remote” compared to states in the mainland.
“We are currently looking on the recruitment of doctors from the Philippines,” he said but stressed there are obstacles.
One of the obstacles is that the doctors must be U.S trained professionals and must have passed the U.S licensure exam for doctors or the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) or a license to practice medicine in the U.S.
USMLE is granted by the United States and its territories and the individual medical licensing authorities (“state medical boards”) of the various jurisdictions.
He said medical insurances like Medicare and Medicaid will only cover the medical costs of patients if the doctor who sees these patients is U.S certified.
“A lot of people here in the CNMI are under these insurances and the government is trying to consider that,” Reyes said.
Medicare is a health insurance program for people aged 65 or older, some disabled people under age 65, and people of all ages with End-Stage Renal Disease (permanent kidney failure treated with dialysis or a transplant).
Medicaid, on the other hand, is available only to certain low-income individuals and families who fit into an eligibility group that is recognized by federal and state laws.
Another obstacle, Reyes explained, is the opinion of local patients.
He said although majority of medical employees in the hospital are Filipinos, local patients prefer doctors from the U.S than doctors from the Philippines.
There will be no problem in hiring doctors from the Philippines said Taotao Tano President Greg Cruz in an interview yesterday.
The government, he added, sends patients almost on a weekly basis to the Philippines under the medical referral paid for by the government.
He said 80 percent of patients are referred to the Philippines.
“This tells me that they do have good, professional and reliable Doctors,” he said.
Cruz said the government pays doctors from U.S mainland or Canada an equivalent of $150,000 to $250,000.00 but the people of CNMI get poor services.
The legislators, he added, should work extra hard at finding the funding to keep doctors permanently in the CNMI so that the government will be able to save much needed revenue from off island medical referrals
As of now, when treating the patients, the hospital seeks the help of doctors from Guam through phone call.
