CHCC board trustees are split on AG’s legal opinion

Members of the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. board of trustees are split on a recent legal opinion that the board, being an advisory body, has no power to force the hospital CEO to follow its recommendations in matters concerning management and operation.

Trustee Anthony Raho said he greatly appreciates what he described as a free and fair legal opinion provided by Attorney General Joey San Nicolas despite any politics that may be involved in the matter.

“Of course I am happy that the AG’s opinion supports one of the three lines of reasoning that CEO [Esther] Muña, Dr. [Sherleen] Osman, and I had as to why the CHCC board of trustees’ Resolution 2014-02 was faulty in its attempt to address the board members’ concerns of a due process issue— simply one reasoning being that the board in its advisory capacity had no authority to issue such a resolution giving direction to the CEO,” he told Saipan Tribune.

Raho said he fails to understand why his fellow board members are confused in this despite the clarity of Public Law 16-51 that created the corporation.

“I would hope now that there has been clarification regarding CHCC board of trustee Resolution 2014-02, which has been somewhat a divisive issue, that the board can move on, resolve any matters of outstanding conflict between board members themselves and between the board and the CHCC management, and work in cooperation for the good of CHCC and the people of the CNMI. I feel that this board or any board for that matter should be able to demonstrate that it may work in cooperation and collaboration with management, not against them, in an advisory capacity before even being considered for an actual governing board role,” he added.

Trustee Phillip Mendiola-Long refused to comment on the issue when asked. However, he noted that, “I am at a loss as to what it is that we exactly are supposed to do based on this interpretation of the law.”

Trustee Roy Rios had this to say: “The law is the law and I will follow it. I will ask my fellow trustees to not dwell on this any further. We don’t have the luxury of time to dwell on this. We must work collaboratively. We must think of the public’s welfare. Our time must be focused on the continuous provision of quality healthcare to the public.”

CHCC board chair Joaquin Torres earlier said “it appears that the legal opinion focused on supporting the position taken earlier by one of its staff and ignored other relevant provisions of the law that may not tend to support that position.”

Warning

Raho said there is a “draft” bill (Senate Bill 18-52) converting the board from advisory to governing. He said the bill was never presented, discussed, nor ratified in any capacity by the CHCC board.

“I would hope that the mere fact that the draft bill was submitted by a private citizen as opposed to the board review itself would be cause for concern for any legislator considering this bill. I have great concern for the legitimacy of SB 18-52 as it attempts to remove the CEO and the director of Medical Affairs as voting members, and reduces the board membership to five strictly political appointees with no requirement for any health care management background,” he said, adding that there is no requirement to have any physician as a voting member on this body.

For Raho, these proposed changes are alarming and he hopes the Senate and the House of Representatives will look closely at the many problems with the draft legislation, call for public hearings and garner the opinions, advice, and guidance of experts that have health care management experience.