Hearing Officer Jerry Cody said he’s giving the Saipan Employment Agency & Services 20 days from receipt of the administrative order to reimburse the medical expenses incurred by its worker Imee T. Tupaz Taimanao.
Taimanao, who was employed as a nurse on Rota since 2004, complained to Labor after her employer refused to reimburse $21,685.16 of medical expenses she incurred for treatment in the Philippines.
In his order dated June 15, Cody said if SEAS fails to pay the reimbursement award by the deadline, the agency will be barred and disqualified from hiring, renewing or employing foreign national workers in Commonwealth.
“This sanction shall apply to bar both new and renewal application by SEAS or on its behalf,” he said.
Cody said SEAS will be penalized $25 per day, which will be added to the total reimbursement award, if it fails to pay on the due date until the obligation is fully satisfied.
Under the current and long-standing CNMI law, Cody said employers remain obligated to pay all medical expenses of their foreign national employees.
He said P.L. 15-108 establishes a medical insurance plan that has yet to be implemented by the Secretary of Public Health. But if the health secretary does not implement regulations on medical insurance, the provision of prior law on the responsibility of employers for the medical care of foreign national workers will continue in force and effect.
“Employer failed to offer any reimbursement of the submitted expenses, even after months of review,” Cody said.
On April 2008, Taimanao complained a severed abdominal paid and it was determined that she needed medical treatment off-island.
Cody said that SEAS was notified of its worker’s medical condition, but failed to comply with request from employees and Rota Health Center.
Taimanao, based on her complaint, endured four surgeries in three different medical facilities to correct her life-threatening condition – the removal of a cyst and treatment for abdominal abscesses that developed after the first surgery.
Cody said that Taimanao eventually recovered and was released from the hospital in the Philippines. She returned to Rota and resumed employment with SEAS.
Upon her return, he said, the workers submitted all here medical billings to her employer but received no response to her request for reimbursement.
Cody said the Labor office opened an agency case against SEAS and its vice president Henry Cruz early in 2009 for allege violation of the Pl 15-108 by failing to provide medical coverage to its workers.
When the hearing officer noted that SEAS had had nine months from August 2008 to May 2009 to obtain answers to questions regarding the billing, Cruz offered no viable explanation as to why it was taking him and his company so long to process the request, he said.
