THE 22nd House of Representatives unanimously passed House Bill 22-77 as amended by the Senate on Thursday last week before adjourning sine die. The bill proposes to create a Health Network Program and provide for the “orderly transition” of medical referral services to the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp.
As amended by the Senate, H.B. 22-77, which is now on the desk of Gov. Arnold I. Palacios, would also write off outstanding balances of medical referral promissory notes in response to CHCC Chief Executive Officer Esther Muna’s letter informing 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.”
Asked what will happen to medical referral patients if funding runs out and there’s still no supplemental budget, former Rep. Tina Sablan, the author of the bill said:
“What was formerly known as medical referral will now be part of the Health Network Program under CHCC, an integral part of hospital services that can be billed to Medicaid and insurance, and services will continue.”
She said the bill is “needed to set the parameters for the program, authorize CHCC to promulgate rules and regulations, and protect CHCC from assuming responsibility for past debts under the old office and legally invalid promissory notes that were issued.”
Prior to the House’s passage of the bill last week, Sablan said “it makes sense, at this juncture, to write off, for once, [the promissory notes and] to relieve CHCC from the burden of maintaining the responsibility for these promissory notes as the program is transitioned to CHCC. It also provides relief for people who had been in limbo about the status of these promissory notes which, again, are really not collectible and had no legal validity in the first place.”
