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Demapan wants to bring back stipend program for medical referral program
Rep. Angel Demapan (R-Saipan) said he wants a stipend program for medical referral patients to be revived.
Demapan said the program has been discontinue “for some years now” and that it was brought to lawmakers again by patients seeking help to alleviate costs while on medical referral trips.
Demapan said he will seek to identify funding for the stipend program, which he said is estimated at $350,000 per year.
He said based on his experience as a medical referral manager in Honolulu before assuming public office, $20 per day can be of tremendous help for patients.
These patients are “not there on any leisure trip” and that there is a need to provide assistance, Demapan said.
The lawmaker further said he is glad to hear that the Medical Referral Services Office is now looking to raise the cap for the CNMI’s indigent program from $50,000 to $80,000.
The program allows indigent individuals who cannot afford health insurance to seek government financial assistance of $50,000.
“But if you exceed the $50,000, then you’re on your own,” Demapan said, adding that the MRS has submitted the proposal to the Attorney General’s Office for comments.
Budget for medical referrals
MRS director Ronald D. Sablan, meanwhile, said a budget of $8.039 million has been submitted to lawmakers during a budget hearing on Friday.
The government’s proposal, however, is much lower at $1.088 million. “What I presented is historical data on what the MRS program needs,” Sablan said.
But Sablan said despite the big difference, the government has a “reprogramming authority” to use to cover its medical referral program. The government has been “very accommodating,” Sablan said.
Sablan added that on average, some 700 patients from the CNMI are sent on medical referrals abroad.
He said the priorities of the MRS will not change, and that is “to send people out to get the necessary medical treatments.”
“But I’m really shorthanded, but efficiency is there, everybody wants more people, but I also want to help government to cut costs,” Sablan said.
