Legislature tries to calm CHC

Both the Senate and House are trying to calm Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. management and employees who might make good on their threat of walking out of their jobs over the financial crisis at the hospital, as lawmakers weigh further actions on two CHC-related bills that passed the Senate on Thursday night.

The Senate told two CHC officials and one concerned doctor from the private sector yesterday that the Senate actually gave a bit more to CHC than originally proposed in the $11.58 million line of credit measure or House Bill 17-278 if one takes into account a second substituted legislation, H.B. 17-261, that they also passed Thursday night.

That second bill, HB 17-261, Senate Substitute 1, would amend the fiscal year 2012 budget law to make the $5 million “seed” money appropriated to CHC as the state share of the required matching funds for Medicaid reimbursements to the corporation and would therefore yield a reimbursement of $5 million that will also go to CHC.

The first bill authorizes the Marianas Public Land Trust to provide up to $11.58 million line of credit to CHC.

Sen. Ralph Torres (R-Saipan) said that in essence, with the two bills combined, CHC will get a bit more than $10 million in the $11.58 million line of credit bill.

That additional amount for CHC is about $1.5 million if the two Senate-substituted bills are combined and signed into law.

Acting governor Eloy S. Inos said in the fiscal year 2012 budget law, only $2.4 million was identified as available for local match under the Medicaid program. What that means, he said, is the CNMI can only get Medicaid reimbursements only up to the amount of local match available, which is $2.4million.

But by amending Public Law 17-55 to identify the $5 million “seed” money for CHC as state share for Medicaid, “that will yield a $5 million reimbursement for Medicaid which will benefit CHC,” Inos said.

The two Senate substitute bills are back in the House where they originated, but some House members said yesterday they are concerned about the Senate amendments.

Most House members asked for comment yesterday said they have yet to read the Senate substitute for HB 17-278, which was already transmitted to the House on Friday so that House members could start reading them.

Rep. Ray Basa (Cov-Saipan), author of HB 17-278, said he’s “shocked” by the Senate’s action on his $11.58 million line of credit bill for CHC, knowing that the corporation needs immediate cash infusion.

“As the author of the bill, it’s hard for me to accept what the Senate has done to the bill, giving much less money to CHC than what we had proposed,” Basa said.

Basa, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said the House will either reject or approve the substitute HB 17-278, or refer it to his committee for further review.

As of yesterday, there’s no telling when the House will hold another session.

Basa also said what the Senate did to his bill could be unconstitutional, because the Senate added other subjects or items to the legislation.

For example, instead of just focusing on the MPLT line of credit for CHC, the Senate changed the board of trustees into a “governing” body rather than an “advisory” one and removed the governor’s power to appoint CHC’s chief executive officer and give that power to the board of trustees. Senators also reduced the number of board members from seven to five.

Moreover, House members are not aware of the second bill that the Senate also passed on Thursday night to supposedly make up for the loss of money for CHC in the first bill.

HB 17-261, authored by Rep. Ralph Demapan (Cov-Saipan), seeks to amend the 2012 budget law to extend the 90-day window before eliminating unfilled job vacancies.

The Senate passed a substitute version of HB 17-261 to make the $5 million “seed” money for CHC as CNMI matching fund for Medicaid.

Torres, chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, said the Senate “cares about the health of our people and the corporation.”

“Last year, when the hospital’s emergency room was about to be shut down because of lack of money to buy needed reagent and other stuff, the Senate identified $1.3 million from CDA interest, and that helped the ER stay open. Now the two bills we passed last week would also help CHC,” Torres told Saipan Tribune.

Torres said he and Senate President Paul Manglona (Ind-Rota) met yesterday afternoon with CHC’s Medical Affairs director Dr. Michael Deary and CHC inpatient pharmacist Anthony Raho, as well as with Dr. Tony Stearns of the Marianas Medical Center.

Torres said that contrary to what others might think, CHC does need a CT scanner, which he proposes to buy using $583,000 from federal repayment of a total of $1.58 million.

“We need to start providing equipment and specialized service here in the CNMI to alleviate medical referrals,” Torres added.

In the $11.58 million line of credit bill, $1.58 million is for the electronic health information technology initiative that will be repaid using federal grants, leaving $10 million for CHC as proposed by the House.

Of the $10 million, however, the Senate gave $3.5 million to the Public School System to pay its debt to the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. Another $1.5 million was set aside by the Senate for CHC’s payment of its debt to CUC.

This means some $5 million is left for CHC to decide where to spend, or half of the $10 million it was hoping for.

Torres said the Senate wanted to make up for the difference by substituting another bill that will provide an additional $5 million to CHC. He also said the $1.5 million is actually CHC’s debt to CUC.

“Last week, CUC said it was about to cut off power to CHC and PSS if there’s no plan to pay their debts. Because the Senate found another source of money for CHC, we decided to also give money from the loan to CUC as payment for both CHC and PSS outstanding debts,” said Torres.

He clarified that the $3.5 million that will go to CUC as payment for CHC obligations will be repaid from the general fund, and will not be repaid by CHC.