Esther Muña quits as healthcare corp.’s CFO

Esther Muña, the former acting deputy secretary for hospital administration, has stepped down as the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp.’s chief financial officer effective this month.

Muña confirmed her resignation yesterday, saying that she opted not to renew her contract, which expires on Jan. 10, 2012, as she wants to focus on her medical coding career.

This year marks Muña’s 20th at the hospital. She has a master’s degree in health administration and is a certified professional coder. She started working for the Commonwealth Health Center as a medical transcriptionist. She also had a stint in administrative work before being moved to patient accounting in 1993 where she helped implement the first collections procedures for the hospital. She was promoted to business office manager in 2001.

Muña’s resignation received mixed reactions from many hospital staffers, who believe that her departure is due to a “rift” with healthcare corporation CEO Juan N. Babauta.

Saipan Tribune learned that since the corporation’s takeover, some official functions of the CFO have been taken away from Muña and given to other staffers. Many employees believe this may have been the reason behind Muña’s decision to resign.

Muña declined to comment on this when contacted yesterday.

Babauta was in a meeting when contacted thrice yesterday and had yet to return calls as of press time. Saipan Tribune learned that Babauta named Cora Ada as acting hospital CFO.

Muña, according to hospital staffers, is one of the hardest workers at CHC. When the hospital lost its medical records manager in 2002, she stepped up to the plate to manage the unit in addition to maintaining her business office manager position.

Again, in 2009, when Pete Untalan resigned from CHC as hospital administrator, she assumed the job of administrator while maintaining her CFO position—all without additional pay.

As hospital administrator, she worked with the Public Health secretary to address issues cited by a Medicare survey, including, resolving all issues needed to open the dialysis center in October 2011. Muña is also credited for the successful award of four different grants to the hospital last year.

Since the takeover of the corporation in October, Muña was among the seven members of the corporation management team that directly worked with Babauta.

As the hospital’s chief financial officer, she was paid $49,500 per annum.