NMI defaults in payment to Hawaii-based hospital

Queen’s Medical Center recently asked the Commonwealth government to honor its agreed bi-weekly payment of $300,000 for its off-island medical referral treatments.

In a letter to Rep. William S. Torres, Queen’s officer Carol Lee said Saipan has once again failed to pay on time despite substantial information provided by the hospital on accounts receivable.

“The AR is fairly substantial so we would like to see continued payments on a regular basis,” Ms. Lee wrote the legislator.

Because of the continued discrepancies on payments and billing of services rendered to medical referral patients, Mr. Torres urged Public Health and Group Health and Life Insurance Branch officials to sit down and reconcile accounts payable with Queen’s.

Mr. Torres explained this problem will not be resolved unless government agencies talk it out once and for all with the hospital administration.

By doing this, the congressman sees hope for a better relationship not only between Queen’s and the government but also for medical referral patients seeking medical services abroad.

Earlier, DPH officials warned that should discrepancies with billing statements provided by Queen’s continue, treatments of patients with advanced cancer will be in jeopardy once it proceeds with plans to severe its agreement with Hawaii-based hospital..

Based on the updated status report for the Medicaid Agency, off-island medical referral patients only incurred $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 DPH officials wondering where payments had been diverted.

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

If DPH and Queen’s failed to iron out this problem, there is no alternative left for the Commonwealth but cut its ties with the said hospital and develop relations with other Hawaii-based providers.

But the looming problem is that Queen’s is the only hospital in Hawaii with highly modernized facilities to treat advanced cases of cancer and other specialized diseases.

This, even as other Hawaii hospitals had already signified intention to accept DPH patients sent to off-island health providers.