Rota referral patients waiting for allowance

Posted on Nov 01 2006

Medical referral patients from Rota are still waiting to get the allowance mandated by the new budget law.

Rota Rep. Crispin M. Ogo said that the Department of Public Health should be “responsible for lodging and food or food allowance, depending on a patient’s scheduled medical treatment.”

A patient should at least be getting about $20 a day, he said.

Ogo, the chairman of the House Ways and Means that helped draft the budget law, said he had called the department’s attention to this requirement. But he has not received any response to date.

He also said that, according to Rota medical referral coordinator Patricia Songsong, none of the patients from the island has received the allowance.

Section 604 of Public Law 15-28, or the fiscal year 2007 budget law, states: “The Secretary of the Department of Public Health shall treat medical referral patients from Rota and Tinian receiving treatment in Saipan as if such patients are referred for medical treatment outside the Commonwealth.”

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