SENATOR Teresita A. Santos has expressed concern over recent changes to the Non-Emergency Intra-CNMI Referral Policies.
Teresita Santos
In a letter to Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. Chief Executive Officer Esther L. Muna on Thursday, the senator said a portion of the policy pertaining to intra-CNMI medical travel assistance sounds as though Rota residents have somehow been enjoying a benefit otherwise unavailable to Saipan residents.
According to the policy, “Intra-CNMI medical travel assistance for patients of CHCC is designed to help patients overcome the access disparities caused by geography. Intra-CNMI medical travel assistance is not intended to bestow upon…Rota residents a benefit which is not available to the residents of Saipan.”
But Santos said this statement ignores the main reason why the benefit applies to Rota residents and not to the Saipan residents — to overcome access disparities imposed by geography.
“We are all cognizant that the Rota Health Center…does not have the same professional staff, medical services, medical equipment etc. that is equitable to that of the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp…. Therefore, patients from Rota must be referred to Saipan to avail [themselves] of those services, which are already available to residents on Saipan,” the senator said.
If RHC can offer the same services provided by CHCC, Santos said Rota patients will no longer need to travel to Saipan to seek medical care.
The lawmaker also expressed concern over a portion of the policy that would reduce or waive patient or escort cost-sharing assistance from Rota to Saipan during a State of Public Health Emergency as declared by the governor pursuant to CNMI law.
“As the…adage goes, ‘Timing is everything.’ In my view, the language of your Policy citing the declaration of a State of Public Health Emergency to justify the reduction or waiver of patient or escort cost-sharing should be absolute rather than discretionary,” Santos said in her letter to the CHCC CEO.
Santos said the cost-sharing provision should be waived.
“This is not the right time to implement the identified provisions of this policy,” the senator added.
The pandemic, she said, is still wreaking economic havoc on the lives of Rota residents.
“Many are still suffering from either being furloughed or have been terminated from their jobs coupled with the imminent possibility of another reduction-in-force if our coffers do not improve in the near future. Many are experiencing much difficulty feeding their families without imposing additional medical financial burdens on them,” she said.
Due to Rota’s geographic location, she added, shipment of goods to Rota costs a lot more than goods on Saipan, thus the cost of living is “extremely high” on Rota.
In addition, many families are still trying to recover from the unfortunate and devastating economic effects of the typhoons that ravaged the islands, Santos said.
The local law that created a medical stipend for the people of Rota who are receiving medical treatment on Saipan “has been abruptly ceased,” she said.
The stipends were funded by the Saipan casino license fees and will not be available for an indefinite amount of time because the casino investor, Imperial Pacific International, is “currently embroiled in multiple lawsuits,” she said.
Moreover, IPI’s casino has shut down since March 2020 amid the Covid-19 restrictions.
“This cripples the delegation’s ability to help our people seek the medical services that are not available on Rota,” Santos said.
She noted that Rota, along with the rest of the CNMI, is still in a State of Public Health Emergency.
“Life is difficult enough for our people. We should not have to saddle them with additional financial and emotional burdens,” she said.
Senator Santos asked CHCC to consider deferring the implementation of the policy until a steady and reliable funding source is identified.
