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CHC line of credit bill OK’d
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Posted on Jun 10 2012
Gov. Benigno R. Fitial signed into law on Friday a bill that would provide for up to $7 million in additional revolving line of credit for the Commonwealth Health Corp., press secretary Angel Demapan said last night. The bill signing comes three days after the governor certified the over-the-cap salaries of four doctors amounting to as much as $200,000 a year.
The $7 million is part of the originally planned $11.58 million line of credit and loan for CHC. Of the $11.58 million, $3 million was already drawn down by CHC from the Marianas Public Land Trust. The other $1.58 million loan was for CHC’s electronic health record system.
The bill bounced back and forth between the House and Senate since its introduction in December, until a conference committee was formed to come up with a “compromise” version of the bill.
Part of that House-Senate compromise was passage of a separate bill that would change the CHC board from an “advisory” to a “governing” body.
CHC had been lobbying for the passage of the compromise House Bill 17-278, originally authored by Rep. Ray Basa (Cov-Saipan). CHC was receiving $38 million government subsidy before it became a corporation in fiscal year 2012 when it got only $5 million in seed money.
Fitial also certified the over-the-cap salaries of four CHC doctors on June 5.
The Salary Amendment Act of 1992 sets the salary ceiling for government employees at $50,000. The law, however, gives the governor the authority to waive the ceiling, and submit a certification to the Legislature.
Fitial certified and granted his approval of a $200,000 annual salary for Dr. Florence Susan Schenker, an emergency room physician at CHC; $180,000 annual salary for Dr. Jeri Manning, a general surgeon physician at CHC; and $139,000 and $130,000 annual salary, respectively, for Dr. Yousef Yassin Turshani and Dr. Tiffany Fangtse Lin, both pediatricians at CHC.
