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Off-island referrals see 27 pct. spike in FY ‘08
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Posted on Mar 17 2009
The Medical Referral Office, which has a non-personnel budget of only $5,172 in fiscal year 2009, yesterday said it is projecting a surge in the number of patients referred off island for treatment as a result of the economic slowdown that forces residents to cancel their private health insurance and turn to the government instead for help.
“We are seeing an increase in the number of referrals,” the MRO said yesterday.
MRO referred 716 patients to off island medical providers in FY 2008, a 27-percent increase from only 565 patients in FY 2007.
As expected, medical referral spending also increased—from close to $4 million in FY 2007 to about $5 million in FY 2008.
The number of referrals and the level of spending are expected to further grow this fiscal year.
According to MRO, the slowdown in the economy forces people to cancel their private health insurance altogether and by the time many of them turn to the government for help, their medical condition has already gotten worse and will be needing referral to specialists in off-island facilities.
MRO, which is under the Department of Public Health, has agreements with at least 28 off-island health care providers, including 15 in Guam, five in Hawaii, three in the Philippines, three in the U.S. mainland, and two in Japan.
[B]Budget[/B]MRO is budgeted only $5,172 for FY 2009 for non-personnel costs such as airline tickets, even as it spent some $5 million in referrals for FY 2008 alone. Personnel costs total $512,037 for FY 2009.
Public Health Secretary Joseph Kevin Villagomez could not be reached for comment yesterday as to whether the department will be asking for additional non-personnel funding for MRO.
Rep. Ray Yumul, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, yesterday said no request for additional funding for the Medical Referral Office has been received from DPH.
Yumul also said that even if only a little over $5,000 is budgeted for MRO’s non-personnel costs, the health secretary can always reprogram money from other programs to put into the medical referral expenses. He said the bulk of MRO’s non-personnel expenses may fall under the Medicaid reimbursement amounting to over $4 million.
