23 doctors will leave if ICS contract is rejected

Editor’s Note: This is an open letter emailed to the Saipan Tribune last night by Dr. Jeremy Richard and Dr. Dan Lamar of the Commonwealth Health Center, speaking for the medical staff of CHC.

Dear community of Saipan, Rota, and Tinian: On Thursday afternoon at 3pm, the vast majority of the Commonwealth Health Center’s medical providers gathered together to express concern about the fate of the International Consulting Services contract.

We are concerned about the current state of CHC, that as a public corporation we lack the ability to function independently from the government and make critical decisions that allow us to provide quality health care. We lack a streamlined billing and collection system, and an open and transparent accountability system-both things that ICS is offering to help us create. We have been delayed in our ability to implement these systems for the past several months, and we are now in a critical state where, without the immediate implementation of such systems, we have no confidence in the ability of the hospital to continue to operate, self-sustainably, beyond the next 30-60 days.

CHC has been tasked with operating the hospital and providing medical services in a self-sustaining manner, with limited government support, but almost every attempt we have made to fulfill this mandate has been delayed or blocked. This interference has created the current instability at CHC, which has resulted in an unreasonably difficult and stressful work environment, and the providers at CHC cannot continue to provide care under these conditions. Unless conditions change, it will rapidly become unsafe to provide care.

At this point, the medical staff at CHC feel there are no other options. If the ICS contract is rejected by members of the CNMI government, a critical number of providers-23 out of a total of 26 CHC providers-will resign in the next 30 to 60 days. If such a large number of providers resign, CHC will undoubtedly lose Medicaid and Medicare funding, which are key to the future sustainability of this hospital. To regain Medicaid and Medicare funding, CHC would need to be completely renovated and could cost upwards of $90 million-$100 million to reopen.

We are pleading with the government of the CNMI to allow us to continue to provide care to the community of CNMI. The consequences of rejecting this contract between CHC and ICS are imminent and catastrophic.

Jeremy Richards, MD
Director of Medical Affairs

Dan Lamar, MD
Director of Public Health Services