Distinct classification for health workers pushed

Saying a health workforce shortage has always been a challenge for the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp., chief executive officer Esther L. Muña is hoping that foreign workers in the health industry would be given a different visa classification so it won’t be affected by the CW-1 nonimmigrant cap.

“Health workforce shortage is a challenge throughout the nation and the CNMI is not immune to this shortage. In a booming economy, the CNMI needs to strengthen its health system and its workforce,” said Muña in an email to Saipan Tribune.

“A separate classification of workers specifically for health is necessary to ensure CHCC is not competing with other industries in the CNMI for the same CW slot,” she added.

Muña said they are worried since they have 33 workers that are under the CW program and with the fiscal year 2017 cap almost full, their applications might get denied.

“CHCC is very concerned. CHCC has 33 CW applications—that [we] can only submit after January 2017—that are at risk of getting rejected because of the cap,” she said

She said the 33 are for positions that require specialized skills, education, and training that would be hard to be filled from the current CNMI labor force. “[These are positions] that the CNMI currently does not adequately have to replace.”

Based on USCIS data released last Sept. 20, there are 4,661 CW-1 applicants that have been approved while another 5,595 applications are pending approval, for a total of 10,256, leaving 2,742 slots left to be filled for fiscal 2017.

The USCIS in August granted a 240-day extension to employees whose CW-1 visas are about to expire. This means an employee whose CW-1 visa that was previously approved but had already expired can still work or stay for the next eight months while their papers are being processed again.

Muña said two bills currently in U.S. Congress could help the CNMI, with Delegate Gregorio Kilili Sablan’s (Ind-MP) House Resolution 5888 one of them. “There are pending legislation in the U.S. Congress that can help our current situation.”

Sablan’s bill proposes to increase the CW cap to 18,000 and extend the program to 2029 while Delegate Madeleine Z. Bordallo (D-GU) filed HR 4909 that proposes an amendment on the H2B visa in order to include health care workers in the CNMI’s southern island neighbor.

Muña said that while they wait for the result of both bills, they are also finding ways to solve their problem. “While the outcome of these legislation are still uncertain, CHCC is stepping up their efforts to address this issue internally.”

“Our priority is to ensure that the pipeline of U.S. health workers continue by continuing to support [the Northern Marianas College] and other colleges with students from the CNMI as well as maintain our current hardworking workforce.

“We are moving forward by reevaluating our [human resources] policies and our services and identifying those that already qualify for the H1B visa. Our goal is to ensure that our services will still be available and accessible to the people of the CNMI,” she said.