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New firm eyed to manage Fund’s health claims
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Posted on Jul 17 2000
The NMI Retirement Fund Board is set to hire a review utilization firm this month in a move to efficiently manage all health claims of the members, according to Board Chair Vicente C. Camacho.
Mr. Camacho said the firm will be able to negotiate the best quality service and cost for the Fund which has been having difficulty coping with the huge cost of medical claims since it took over the government’s health insurance in June 1998.
One of the firms that submitted the proposal has offered to provide the Fund 20 percent discount on all medical services including room and board, surgery and prescription drugs for patients.
In 1999, the Fund spends an average of 400,000 a month in health claims of its members alone.
The skyrocketing cost of medical expenses led the CNMI Group Health Insurance Program to increase by 50 percent the premium contribution by its more than 5,000 members last Jan. 1, 2000.
NMI Fund Administrator Juan S. Torres said the hike in employee’s premium contribution has helped in slowly easing the huge deficit on health claims. “We hope to break even soon. We are hoping to slowly recover from the huge claims we have been paying,” he said.
While private health insurance firms have been carrying out increases every year, this year’s hike will only be the second time that the CNMI Group Health Insurance Program will hike its employees’ premium contribution since 1995.
Meanwhile, the Fund has approved the infusion of an additional $3.5 million into its investment in Asia as the region has shown signs of economic recovery.
This brings to $18.5 million the total money now handled by its money manager, Invesco Asia Ltd., in the region. In January 1996, the Fund invested $15 million in Asia but the financial crisis in the region has brought down the value of its investment to $6 million in June 1998. As of May 31, 2000, the Fund’s $15 million investment is valued at $9.8 million.
