$22,000 for a total of $330,000, according to Public Health Secretary Kevin Joseph P. Villagomez.
He expects the number of these patients to increase, as most of them are suffering from cancer and heart diseases.
To cut on costs, CHC is now referring its patients to the Philippines instead of Hawaii.
“The quality of medical care provided in the Philippines is pretty much the same as that offered in Hawaii,” Villagomez said.
But critically ill patients are referred to Nagoya, Japan because there’s a daily CNMI-Japan flight while the Philippines has only two CNMI flights each week, he added.
Villagomez said the cost of airline tickets and hotel accommodations are making things more difficult for CHC.
He said they can request for military aircraft in emergency cases only.
In some cases, CHC will not send the patient for medical referral when the “quality of life is showing that it can’t improve and return to normalcy.”
They don’t refer patients whose chances of recovery are zero to none, he said.
But CHC resorts to medical referrals in the absence of a medical team that can attend to a patient, Villagomez said.
It would be more expensive for CHC to maintain a complete medical team of at least 15 medical specialists, nurses and surgeons, he added.
According to Villagomez U.S. Pacific islands are asking the federal government to come up with a viable way to transport medical referral patients.
