Public Health Secretary Joseph Kevin Villagomez said the goal is to make the debt-ridden Commonwealth Health Center self-sustaining but authorities expect the first few years to remain a struggle.
“In the first couple of years, there will be stumbling blocks along the way so the corporation will still be relying on the central government. Eventually, we’re looking at five or eight years when it can become more self-sustaining which is the ultimate goal,” he said.
Gov. Benigno R. Fitial signed Public Law 16-51, or the Commonwealth Healthcare Corporation Act of 2008, on Jan. 15, 2010.
“The law says we have a year from signing (to implement the changes),” Villagomez told the Variety in an interview. “We are doing some things internally, within the department, to look into how it’s going to be worked out.”
“Eventually, a team needs to be pulled together, comprising of a board of trustees. It’s a seven-member board. Three are ex-officio members that belong to the department — the executive director, the nursing director and the director of medical affairs and four are appointed by the governor,” he added.
The yet to be formed healthcare corporation will be headed by a chief executive officer.
“Within 365 days following the effective date of this act, the corporation shall further assume the functions and duties of the Department of Public Health…and other public law; provided that the secretary of the Department of Public Health may reserve to the department those functions and duties that the secretary specifies as appropriate in a writing communicated to the governor and presiding officers of the Legislature,” P.L. 16-51 states in part.
Villagomez said his department is seriously evaluating every program to determine how to serve the public’s interest.
Federally funded projects like the HIV and STD, maternal healthcare, tuberculosis and diabetes control programs will remain under the Division of Public Health which is under the department.
Once the hospital and the clinics are turned into a healthcare corporation, Villagomez said there will be better control of finances and expenses for supplies and personnel.
“I think the thing that needs to be realized is that the ultimate benefit of making it a corporation is making it self-sustaining,” he said.
The board of trustees include three ex-officio voting members —the CEO, the director of medical affairs and a representative selected by the corporation’s non-physician health care professions — and four others who will be appointed by the governor subject to the Senate’s confirmation.
The four non ex-officio trustees will have staggered terms and serve at the pleasure of the governor which means he can remove them any time he wants.
The CEO will be nominated by the board and appointed by the governor to serve a four-year term.
The corporation can set fees, make rules, procure contracts, operate all the government-owned healthcare facilities and manage personnel, among other things.
It must also adopt a universal mandatory healthcare insurance coverage for the people of the CNMI.
Further, it must develop, recommend and implement a multi-year strategic plan geared toward its financial independence from the cash-strapped CNMI government.
