Igisomar lauds HHS regional chief for nearly $70K grant

Health and Human Services recently made available close to $700,000 to Gov. Benigno R. Fitial under the federal grant “Health Premium Review – Cycle I,” after CNMI Insurance Commissioner Sixto K. Igisomar and Rate Review administrator John S. Blanco met with HHS grant representatives in Little Rock, Arkansas on June 13.

In his letter to HHS Region 9 Regional Director Herb K. Schultz, Igisomar, who is also the Commerce secretary, applauded Schultz for the outreach guidance and support through his office, and for his patience. Schultz concurrently serves as Federal Regional Council Region 9 chairman. Through his leadership, and at the urging of Fitial, he was able to bring together leaders of the territories in the Pacific to discuss opportunities and challenges facing the islands, and most especially healthcare matters.

Igisomar stated, “As complicated as Obamacare is, coupled with our current austerity measures and lack of staff and resources, it was actually through the initial contact of Gov. Fitial and chairman Schultz that gave us faith and comfort that we can actually come close to understanding the implementation of the law.”

This grant serves as an advocate to provide a mechanism to control health care premium costs by insurance companies. Before any health insurance company adds additional charges on top of the current insureds’ premium, it must first be reviewed and approved by the department’s Rate Review Office with the assistance of this grant.

“The good news is we are now able to have an overall assessment and review of our current rate review processes. This is an opportunity to get online with the NAIC System for Electronic Rate and Form Filing, using the services of actuaries, and consider expansion into consumer outreach via the web or social media,” added Blanco.

“Currently, the Medical Loss Ratio may have showed that one of our carriers will be rebating close to $300,000 for overcharged insurance rates. However, the current carrier is indeed the one that issues rebate every year, and so this is not of significant news,” said Charlotte Borja of the Commerce’s Insurance Division. “It would be interesting to see the results when administrator Blanco processes all the carriers to correct premium disparity and practices amongst carriers in the CNMI.”

Borja is one of the key individuals assigned to assist Igisomar with all NAIC and HHS updates. (Office of the Governor)