Bill OKs private hospitals in villages

After hours of talks and amendments, a bill that would ultimately allow hospitals to operate in village commercial zones passed the Saipan and Northern Islands Legislative Delegation yesterday.

With a vote of 9-7, Rep. Joseph “Lee Pan” Guerrero’s (R-Saipan) House Local Bill 21-10 passed the delegation and heads to Gov. Ralph DLG Torres’ desk for enactment.

This bill essentially allows private hospitals to operate on village commercial zones, or zones that are generally reserved for leisure establishments due to its close proximity to residential areas.

Reps. Edwin K. Propst (Ind-Saipan), Tina Sablan (Ind-Saipan), Ivan A. Blanco (R-Saipan), Edmund Villagomez (Ind-Saipan), Ralph Yumul (R-Saipan), Roman Benavente (R-Saipan) and Sen. Vinson Sablan (Ind-Saipan) voted against the legislation.

Rep. Richard Lizama (Ind-Saipan) abstained.

House Speaker Blas Jonathan “B.J.” Attao (R-Saipan), Reps. Joel Camacho (R-Saipan), Luis John “L.J.” Castro (R-Saipan), Lorenzo Deleon Guerrero (R-Saipan), Jose Itibus (R-Saipan), and Janet Maratita (R-Saipan) voted for the legislation, along with delegation chair Rep. John Paul Sablan (R-Saipan), author Guerrero, and Sen. Sixto Igisomar (R-Saipan).

“I know some of the members had major reservations…but the legislation proposes to add hospital-permitted activities under village commercial zones,” Rep. John Paul Sablan told Saipan Tribune in an interview. Current Zoning regulations only allow hospitals to operate in either rural or mixed commercial zones.

“…The proposed legislation only proposes to add hospitals as one of the activities that can be allowed [on village commercial zones],” he said. “I support any private company or investor that wishes to build a state-of-the-art hospital, provided that they follow federal standards that our lone hospital has to follow.”

Sablan noted that he supported Camacho’s floor amendment to have private-owned hospitals comply with federal hospital guidelines such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, or HIPPA, and the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act, or EMTALA.

Camacho’s amendment was further strengthened by a subsidiary amendment offered by Igisomar, which was ultimately adopted and passed.

Rep. Tina Sablan (Ind-Saipan) told Saipan Tribune that the lack of a regulatory body over privately-owned hospitals were a concern. She pointed out that the Commonwealth Health Care Corp. brought up this concern when the delegation’s Committee on Judicial and Governmental Operations sought public comments.

“I voted against the bill because I reviewed the record of comments submitted to the JGO Committee and the [delegation] chairman and saw that nearly all the testimonies received were opposed, and for good reason,” she said in a statement.

According to Rep. Tina Sablan, the Commonwealth Zoning board and the Saipan Mayor’s Office opposed the legislation while CHCC had “major” reservations.

“[Zoning] opposed the bill based on their findings of incompatibility and public hearings they conducted with respect to the one prospective investor who wants to establish a hospital in a village district in Precinct 1. Residents who would be directly impacted by that hospital opposed the rezoning and this legislation. The [Saipan mayor] opposed the bill and urged us to defer to [Zoning] and their recommendations. [CHCC] expressed serious reservations about the lack of oversight on private hospitals to ensure compliance with standards of care,” she noted.

“The various, and legitimate concerns expressed by all of these stakeholders had to do with increased traffic, noise, air emissions, and pollution,” she said, specifying that the pollution referred to hazardous waste, medical waste, and noise pollution.

“As far as we could tell, because there…is no committee report, the one hospital investor we know of is the only one who testified in support of this bill,” Sablan noted. “And while proponents of the bill said this isn’t legislation tailored for one investor, there is just one investor pushing for it.

“Moreover, this bill would open up all of our villages, in all of our precincts on Saipan, to intensive hospital uses that may not be compatible at all with the residential environment.

“I support healthcare, I support hospitals that meet standards of care and are properly regulated, and I also support zoning that preserves the character and tranquility of village residential life. For all these reasons, I could not in good conscience vote yes to this bill,” she added.

Rep. Ivan A. Blanco (R-Saipan), noted that residents themselves are opposed to the bill.

“I voted no because I could not ignore the pleas of the families in the neighborhood whose peace will be affected by operating hospitals in ‘out of zone areas’ and including the serious concerns raised by CHCC, Zoning, and the mayor’s office,” he told Saipan Tribune.