THE 23rd Legislature is working to address the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp.’s funding needs for the medical referral program which is now known as the Health Network Program.
In a recent statement, CHCC said the program is facing a “critical funding crisis,” adding that in January, it requested $3.48 million to operate the program in the current quarter of the fiscal year, but had received $700,000 only.
In separate interviews on Monday, Senate President Edith Deleon Guerrero and Speaker Edmund S. Villagomez said they are looking at appropriating additional funding for the Health Network Program “without ignoring the funding needs of other government entities.”
Deleon Guerrero said the Senate Fiscal Affairs Committee is currently deliberating on the House version of the revised fiscal year 2023 budget, and “there is a plan to provide some sort of subsidy” for medical referral patients, “without disregarding other competing necessities that we also need to address with the limited funding source that we have.”
She noted that last month, the Saipan and Northern Islands Legislative Delegation unanimously passed Rep. Blas Jonathan Attao’s substitute version of House Local Bill 23-1 to appropriate, among other things, $252,000 for the Health Network Program.
Attao said the amount was originally allotted to various community projects in all five precincts on Saipan. But in response to CHCC Chief Executive Officer Esther Muna’s request for funding, he came up with a substitute version of H.L.B. 23-1 that would provide funds for medical referrals.
Deleon Guerrero, for her part, said she recommended to the Senate Fiscal Affairs Committee the inclusion of an administrative provision allowing Gov. Arnold I. Palacios to pursue a “revolving line of credit.”
Considering that the government is the largest banking client in the CNMI, Deleon Guerrero said the CNMI government should “leverage” its business relationship with financial institutions “so we could have a revolving line of credit to have something to fall back [on] in case our [revenue] projection does not go in our favor.”
Speaker Villagomez said he is confident that the Senate Fiscal Affairs Committee is addressing the funding needs of the Health Network Program.
In case the Senate differs from what the House has proposed, there is still a conference committee that can address it, he added.
The House version of the revised FY 2023 budget follows the governor’s proposal to provide the Health Network Program with $1 million which, according to the governor, is “on top of the $1.16 million already provided to CHCC in Public Law 22-22.”
As they noted in the past, Villagomez said, funding for the medical referral program “is a moving target because we don’t know how many people will need it” in a given fiscal year.
Rep. Malcolm Omar said although the CNMI government is broke, the House Health and Welfare Committee, which he chairs, is working closely with the administration to find funding for the Health Network Program.
The Saipan delegation, he said, has also done its part to help the program by unanimously passing H.L.B. 23-1.
With the revised FY 2023 budget bill now with the Senate, “there may be some other appropriations to cut to help the medical referral program,” he added.
