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CHCC to submit business plan ‘soon’
The Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. is being asked to present a business plan that will hopefully shed more light on the corporation’s status.
Muna
After a lengthy meeting with lawmakers on Capital Hill on Wednesday, CHCC chief executive officer Esther Muña promised to send them the business plan “soon.”
Muña said the business plan “is already there and only needs a review” and further comments before she sends it to the lawmakers.
Muña did not give an exact date as to when she plans to turn over the business plan.
Lawmakers summoned Muña and other key executives to Capital Hill for a joint meeting on health care.
There were discussions on the status of health centers on Rota and Tinian, but the questions from lawmakers centered on the financial status of CHCC and its proposed plans to bail itself out of its financial woes.
The CHCC was established in 2011, and based on an audit report for fiscal year 2012, still “needs to strengthen its financial reporting.” The audit report also recommended that the CHCC come up with a business plan.
The business plan is widely expected to contain how CHCC will address most, if not all, questions regarding its financial and management plans.
Muña said that despite its financial difficulties, the CHCC cannot just shut down its hospitals and health centers.
“The main concern really is funding,” the executive said, emphasizing that with more support, the CHCC can finally be “in the black” after operating at a loss for years.
Sen. Teresita A. Santos (R-Rota) said the lawmakers will wait for the business plan and will sit down and discuss it.
Santos, who chairs the Senate Committee on Health and Welfare, said the meeting on Wednesday will only be one of the many meetings that lawmakers will have with the CHCC executives.
Lawmakers will hold a separate meeting today with the CHCC board of directors to take up the issue about transforming the corporation’s advisory board into a governing one, which is the subject of a bill that Santos recently prefiled at the Senate.
