THE Commonwealth Healthcare Corp., an independent public corporation, is requesting a $22.9 million subsidy from the CNMI government.
CHCC expects to spend $116.8 million in fiscal year 2023, but it projects to collect only $93.9 million in revenue.
Its FY 2023 expenditures include $71.7 million for personnel; $41.3 million for operations; and $3.6 million for utilities.
On Thursday in the House chamber, CHCC Chief Executive Officer Esther L. Muna and Chief Financial Officer Perlie Santos presented to the House Committee on Ways and Means CHCC’s FY 2023 appropriations request.
In her presentation, Santos said of their $22.9 million funding request, $8.19 million will pay for full-time employee positions that have been vacant since 2020; $3.6 million will go to the Commonwealth Utilities Corp., $4.5 million is for capital improvements; $2.6 million will be spent on supplies for oncology; $1.4 million will be used as matching fund for CHCC activities that are federally funded; and $2.5 million is for “unfunded/underfunded activities.”
Critical
In her testimony, Muna said CHCC’s budget was approved by its board of trustees and represents “continuous improvements to our hospital and our health system.”
She said they have hired a radiologist and a cardiologist as well as other specialists including an oncologist, a nephrologist, an otolaryngologist, and an orthopedic surgeon.
These “come with a heavy price tag but are still not near what is offered and paid for in other U.S. hospitals,” Muna said.
Just like any hospital, she said CHCC has to spend first to get paid. “We have to spend on personnel, equipment, and support services, including nursing, maintenance, and billers. That’s especially difficult when CHCC never really had a proper investment from the CNMI government for health,” she added.
“That’s difficult when you have Medicaid policies that provide high matching percentage [on the part of] the local government or when the local government consistently does not match the territorial share. It’s difficult when you have policies that make it difficult for us to recruit and retain nurses, such as the [CW-1] touchback regulation and lack of appropriation,” she said.
Muna said it has been challenging when CHCC has employees experiencing burnout during the Covid-19 response. For some, she added, the decision to leave CHCC and the CNMI was an easy one to make.
One of the most valuable and cost-effective ways to improve a person’s health and well-being, Muna said, is health promotion and disease prevention. But it’s difficult to provide adequate health promotion and disease prevention “when there’s this myth that the federal government will pay for everything,” she added.
“We need an upgraded hospital facility. We added more personnel from health equity grants and grants that emphasize public health and mental health. We need more surgical suites and more rooms dedicated to intensive care needs,” she said.
“Yes, the amount we’re asking for is tremendous. We based this on the needs of this community. Please consider this as an investment. Think of what we can achieve for our people. Think of providing us the tools to combat health issues affecting our people and providing much medical treatment,” the CEO said.
Present during the CHCC budget hearing on Thursday were House Committee on Ways and Means Chair Donald Manglona, vice chair Corina Magofna, members Tina Sablan, Edwin Propst, Celina Babauta, Leila Staffler, Denita Yangetmai, Richard Lizama, Joel Camacho and Patrick San Nicolas.
