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Senate and House to meet with CHC today
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Posted on Feb 29 2012
Amid the financial crisis at the hospital, the Senate and House of Representatives are set to meet today with Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. officials and staffers on the contentious $11.58 million line of credit bill, a measure on a $5 million Medicaid state share, and proposed changes to the law that created the corporation.
This is a follow up to the Senate leadership’s meeting with CHC officials on Tuesday afternoon. This time around, the Senate leadership invited House members and the administration.
Sen. Ralph Torres (R-Saipan), chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, said yesterday he is amenable to maintaining the number of CHC board members at seven instead of five that the Senate approved last week.
But he said even if the number is reduced to five, the Senate would still want at least two physicians on the board.
Torres said the Senate is firm on making the board a governing one instead of just an advisory board, citing other government boards and commissions that appoint the chief executive officer or executive director, not the governor.
As for the reestablishment of the Department of Public Health, he said most of the programs or units under it are federally funded anyway so a general fund appropriation won’t be that much.
Torres also hopes to discuss further with CHC the two Senate-substituted House bills passed on Thursday night and how these two bills would help stem the financial crisis at the hospital.
Torres reiterated that the passage of House Bill 17-261 makes up for the difference in the amount going to CHC under the Senate version of HB 17-278 or the $11.58 million line of credit bill.
The Senate version of HB 17-261 makes 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, senators and the Fitial administration had said.
HB 17-278, meanwhile, authorizes the Marianas Public Land Trust to provide up to $11.58 million line of credit.
But House Ways and Means Committee chair Ray Basa (Cov-Saipan) said the Senate version of HB 17-278 is problematic and could be unconstitutional.
