Invectives were hurled during a public hearing yesterday at the Senate chamber.
Dr. Vicente S. Aldan, vice president of Health Professional Corp., described as “stupid” the contract signed by the Retirement Fund and Hawaii Pacific Medical Referral.
Aldan accused Retirement Fund Chairman Vicente C. Camacho of not listening to the concerns of private health care providers. He also told Camacho that “it is illegal” to give up the agency’s authority to a third party administrator like HPMR.
But Camacho didn’t allow Aldan to get away with his criticism.
He, too, raised his voice during the hearing conducted by the Senate Health, Welfare and Education Committee.
He told Aldan that the Retirement Fund will never change its contract with HPMR just to follow the whims of two private local health care providers.
“That’s why we hired a (third party administrator) because they are experts. You are having a party all the time. But the party is over. We are not going to change the contract. Welcome to the U.S.A,” Camacho said.
Camacho in a later interview said some private health care providers do not want to be screened by the third party administrator since this would reduce their profits.
“They are not used in having experts going over their bills. Now that we have a (third party administrator) to screen all the charges, we are finding a lot of (bills) that should not have been charged. And they’re not happy with that, because they will be losing profit,” he said.
But Aldan believes that the proposed contract was made to satisfy the third party administrator “without consideration” to the local providers “who have worked hard this past years to improve the health care standards…in the CNMI.”
“The magnitude of the liability issues, which are skillfully hidden throughout the new proposed regulation, required much foresight and experience to dissect the remorse intention of the proposed (third party administrator) sacrificing the years of work to build this health plan,” said Aldan.
According to Aldan, the third party administrator is a service management concept similar to the Doctor’s Clinic arrangement on Guam with Straub Clinic which “eventually bankrupts itself since it paid itself first then the providers.”
“(Third party administrators) that otherwise look for investment loopholes will strive to maximize their potential earnings at the expense of the subscribers and the providers,” Aldan said.
Island Medical Center is also opposed to the proposed contract. Art Moore, an official of the center, said “it was a one-sided contract that does not guarantee payment to local providers within reasonable time.”
