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CHCC, GMH to meet with new Region 9 director
Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. chief executive officer Esther Muña and Guam Memorial Hospital executives are meeting the new Region 9 director for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Region 9.
Muna will be leaving today, March 2, to join GMH officials in their tête-à-tête with new HHS Region 9 Director Melissa Stafford Jones in San Francisco.
CHCC and GMH will be teaming up to update Jones on healthcare issues in the Pacific.
“We’re teaming up with Guam to talk on improving the healthcare in the region. If you look at Guam, you sometimes ask why is it so difficult to transfer patients to Guam? Why is it that we have to transfer patients to the Philippines? These are things that they have a concern with and it has to do with payment issues. That is one of the reasons why we’re teaming up to basically explain to Jones on everything,” Muña said.
She said they also want to open the communication lines and extend their relationship with HHS further.
“It’s the first time in history that the two sole public hospitals in Guam and the CNMI are getting together. We want to talk about the Affordable Care Act and the benefits that are not available to the territories,” Muña said.
Medicaid issues will also be discussed.
“I will be criticized that I am leaving but I will be very ineffective if I just sit around so we need to go and meet with Jones to meet and greet and then discuss the issues,” she said.
Aside from meeting Jones, Muña said they will also go to Washington, D.C. with Department of the Interior and HHS executives, but this has not been confirmed yet.
Also included in her off-island itinerary will be the Health Conference of the Pacific Islands Health Officers Association in Palau this March.
Muña said she has already gotten approval from Gov. Eloy S. Inos for her trip to San Francisco and that she will not be using CHCC funds for the trip. Her trip to Palau will be paid for by the Pacific Island Health Officers’ Association.
