WHERE did the money come from? Rep. Tina Sablan asked in response to Gov. Ralph DLG Torres’ statement that the Commonwealth Medicaid Agency or CMA does not lack $5 million in local matching funds.
Torres on Monday said certain elected officials had been misinforming the community and creating uncertainty among the people of the Commonwealth.
Last week, Sablan and Rep. Donald M. Manglona urged the governor to use his 25% reprogramming authority to transfer the $5 million in local matching funds to CMA.
But according to the governor CMA is not short on funds, noting that the $5 million is in his administration’s proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year.
Sablan, the Democratic candidate for governor, said she “encourages” Torres “to make an effort to understand the issues affecting Medicaid and the Commonwealth Healthcare Corporation. There is no excuse for why his administration has kept the CNMI Medicaid Agency and CHCC in the dark for months about how and when the local match would come. There is no excuse for Governor Torres’ total lack of urgency.”
She said the administration has known about Medicaid’s need for the $5 million local match since at least March, when the new U.S. Treasury rule barring the use of ARPA funds for the Medicaid local match was released.
She added that the administration has also known about the “disastrous consequences” of failing to meet the local match.
“In May, with no solutions in sight, the CNMI Medicaid Agency wrote to the Legislature for help,” Sablan said. “I inquired with the Secretary of Finance about the status of the local match for Medicaid at the budget hearing in June, then called a [House Committee on] Health and Welfare hearing with Medicaid and CHCC in July when it became apparent that the issue had not yet been resolved. The sense of crisis was abundantly clear to all of us.”
After the committee hearing, Sablan said she requested a meeting with Atalig who, she added, did not respond.
She said she and Rep. Donald Manglona then wrote a joint letter to the governor “proposing solutions and urging him to take action.” The governor also did not respond, she said.
“But a few days later, with mere weeks to go before the end of the fiscal year, we received word that the administration had finally transferred the $5 million needed and Medicaid can now begin drawing down funds to pay providers and vendors. Where the money actually came from is a subject for further inquiry by the Legislature,” Sablan said.
“It’s a little late in the game for the governor to be telling the public that Medicaid was ‘never’ in jeopardy, let alone lecturing lawmakers — and by extension the agencies that came to us for help — about ‘misinformation.’”
She added, “I urge Governor Torres to make healthcare a priority. Talk to the people at Medicaid, the Commonwealth Healthcare Corporation, and the patients who depend on Medicaid and CHCC for care. Communication goes a long way to assure people that they won’t be losing life-saving benefits.”
She said lawmakers “are still waiting to hear what happened with the $34 million owed to CHCC since 2018. This includes millions in local appropriations approved by the legislature and signed into law, as well as tens of millions in federal ARPA allocations promised to CHCC for hospital operations, medical referral, and an MRI unit that is so badly needed here. Where is the money?”
On Thursday morning, she said “the $5M for Medicaid that we’ve been going around and around about is needed before the end of this fiscal year. If the funds weren’t given to Medicaid before Sept 30, the CNMI would have had to return $28M. The local match for the upcoming fiscal year is an entirely separate matter that has to be addressed in the new budget.”
For his part, Finance Secretary Atalig said he would meet with CHCC officials to discuss the subsidies and other funds that CHCC says it has yet to receive from the central government.
He said Finance staffers were “looking at the numbers provided to me by CHCC, which are currently being verified with the findings forthcoming.”
