CHC line of credit bill heads to Fitial

The Senate passed yesterday on Rota a compromise version of a bill providing an $11.58-million line of credit and loan for the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. The passage came only after senators received assurance yesterday from the House that an accompanying bill will be passed by the House at its next session.

Of the $11.58 million, up to $7 million is considered “new” line of credit that the Marianas Public Land Trust will be authorized to provide CHC.

The conference committee version of House Bill 17-278 now heads to Gov. Benigno R. Fitial for his signature.

Senate President Paul Manglona (Ind-Rota) and other senators confirmed that the conference committee version of the line of credit bill passed the Senate by a vote of 7-0 during the Rota session.

Two senators were absent: Senate Vice President Jude Hofschneider (R-Tinian) and Sen. Henry San Nicolas (Cov-Tinian).

Sen. Ralph Torres (R-Saipan), chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, and House Health Committee chair Sylvester Iguel (Cov-Saipan) separately assured senators that the House will pass Senate Bill 17-80 on Friday. SB 17-80 changes the nature of the CHC board from an “advisory” to a “governing” one.

“That’s the reason why we passed it [compromise HB 17-278],” Torres told Saipan Tribune, referring to Iguel’s assurance.

SB 17-80 was supposed to be passed by the House last week when it cleared the compromise HB 17-278.

The Senate wanted this change in the nature of the CHC board incorporated in the original version of HB 17-278 but that amendment was rejected by the House, resulting in a conference committee that Torres and Iguel co-chaired. The six-member committee agreed to “simultaneously” pass two bills-the conference committee version of HB 17-278 and SB 17-80.

But the House, citing “oversight,” passed only HB 17-278 and not SB 17-80 last week, resulting in the Senate holding off passage of HB 17-278 until yesterday.

CHC chief financial officer Alvaro Santos earlier said the hospital needs the additional line of credit authorized by HB 17-278, as well as an annual subsidy of $10 million for several years so that the corporation will be able to continue to provide medical services to the community.

CHC was receiving $38 million government subsidy before it became a corporation in fiscal year 2012.

The Fitial administration gave the corporation just $5 million in seed money for 2012 and expected the hospital to collect $18 million in revenues in 12 months. The hospital is nowhere close to collecting that. Because of the halt in government subsidy and severe lack of funds, CHC always teeters on the brink of a shutdown.