CHCC, CUC to discuss an ‘acceptable’ payment plan

Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. chief executive officer Esther Muña and other hospital executives will meet with Commonwealth Utilities Corp. officials soon to discuss an acceptable payment plan after CHCC was found in contempt for not complying with a court order to pay its monthly bills, now totaling $14.7 million.

Last Thursday, Superior Court Associate Judge David A. Wiseman gave the go signal for CUC to cut utility services to CHCC’s “non-essential” services unless CHCC pays up or pays an amount that satisfies CUC.

CHCC was given 10 days starting last Thursday to file any objections to the list of “non-essential” hospital services that will be cut from the power grid.

Muña told Saipan Tribune that they gave the court a list of facilities and locations that they felt could be disconnected.

She assured, though, that no “critical patient areas” are on the list and many will remain open to the public and that all hospital patients will be fine.

Essential areas include the hospital, dialysis center, and other areas that the corporation deems critical for both patients and the community.

Muña said that some of the non-essential areas “were actually previously told to CUC and we did ask CUC to disconnect them before but they just never did.”

It was earlier reported that CHCC’s combined revenue for October, November, and December 2014 was $6.8 million. In that same period, the hospital paid $5.4 million in personnel costs and had $1.5 million to spend on vendors, including non-medical and medical supplies vendors.

CUC was on the list of non-medical vendors that CHCC didn’t pay because it said it wants to prioritize essential services that would benefit its patients the most.

Muña said they did want to pay and want to make sure that they make it affordable and acceptable to CUC and CHCC.

“We will ask the 19th Legislature to help us with this because, again, the $2 million appropriated annually is insufficient to even run the hospital,” Muña said.

In light of CHCC’s challenges with utility costs, Muña supports a proposed bill in the House of Representatives, House Bill 19-36, that Rep. Ralph Yumul (Ind-Saipan) and other lawmakers introduced on Wednesday.

HB 19-36 seeks to appropriate up to $4.2 million of lapsed funds from Business Unit No. 3490 to CUC for the payment of utilities for CHCC’s outstanding $14.7 million. According to Yumul, Business Unit No. 3490 refers to the Commonwealth Alien Deportation Fund that was created under Public Law 10-1. The fund was established by taking $25 from every initial application fee and from every renewal fee for nonresident worker permits. It was meant to assist in the investigation, apprehension, detention, and deportation of illegal aliens. Yumul said the alien deportation fund has not been subject to legislative appropriations since 1996.

In a separate interview, CHCC advisory board chair Jack Torres said he hasn’t talked with Muña yet but that they need to meet with her first and see the financial statements, which he said he hasn’t seen for almost a year.

“I think that first we need to have an energy reduction plan and see if we can reduce our consumption. If there are areas that are essential or non-essential, we need to see those because there are so many factors to come up with and make recommendations and see how much are they really consuming and what areas we need to cut, but definitely not cut the hospital’s areas,” Torres said.

Both agree, though, that seeking Legislative appropriations is one of the hospital’s best bets.