DPH Told: Reconcile with Queen’s

Health officials have been asked to reconcile with the management of Queen’s Medical Center to continue medical services for thousands of CNMI off-island medical referral patients.

The Legislature said it is willing to draft measures that will enhance medical programs and eventually improve the Department of Public Health’s medical services.

House Committee on Health and Welfare Chair Rep. Malua Peter said DPH officials should take all necessary measures to prevent disruption of services provided by the Honolulu-based hospital amid problems on billing and payment discrepancies.

Last week, Health Secretary Kevin Villagomez, lawmakers and lawyers left for Hawaii to conduct an ocular inspection and discuss the construction of forensic facilities with experts there.

The health secretary will also meet with Queen’s administration to determine the reason behind continued problems on billing and payment of services provided to medical referral, Medicaid and Group Health and Life Insurance subscribers.

Mr. Villagomez has warned that the health department does not have other alternative left but to sever its tie with Queen’s if billing discrepancies continue.

This was, however, seen to jeopardize treatments of advanced cancer patients. Queen’s is the only hospital in Hawaii with highly modernized facilities to treat advanced cases of cancer and other specialized diseases.

Based on the updated status report for the Medicaid Agency, off-island medical referral patients only incurred an estimated $18,978.81 to-date but hospital staff continue to turn away DPH patients seeking highly specialized cancer treatments at Queen’s.

Since October last year, almost $1.711 million worth of medical bills were settled to the Hawaii hospital but billings continue to pile up, leaving the DPH officials wondering where payments were diverted that settled hospital bills always fail to show up.

Even the secretary admitted that DPH should sit down and reconcile medical bills. “We have to reconcile those billings, we keep on asking them to provide us with documents,” said Mr. Villagomez.

He added that despite payments made on the existing accounts, medical referral patients sent to Queen’s to undergo treatments for specialized diseases were held back, asked to pay up front or were turned away by hospital officials.

In October last year, the Medical Referral Office settled GHLI financial problem with Queen’s amounting to over $1.4 million while Medicaid Agency paid an estimated $338,044 and other medical bills of $56,644.

Ms. Peter expressed optimism that the meeting with Queen’s will yield positive result and Mr. Villagomez do his utmost best to resolve the problem.

“I am confident that the secretary will do his best and we will be waiting for his recommendations,” the congresswoman told an interview.