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Hocog, Cing eyed as CHCC board members
Gov. Ralph DLG Torres has nominated two persons to be on the new Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. board of trustees.
In a message to the Senate last week, Torres nominated Dr. Larry B. Hocog as one of three representatives for Saipan and former senator William Cing as representative of Tinian.
Torres gets to nominate five persons in all to the CHCC board.
Hocog is a medical doctor at TakeCare/FHP. Cing serves as the Tinian Health Center director.
CHCC chief executive officer Esther Muña declined to comment on the nominees.
PL 19-78 changed the CHCC board from an advisory role to a governing one. Its passage grants the CHCC board authority to control the corporation’s daily operations, functions, and activities.
Although the governor or PL 19-78 did not set a specific timeline for the organization of the CHCC board, PL 19-78 did mention that six months after the formation of the board the CEO and the chief financial officer of CHCC would have to start reporting to the board.
PL 19-78 has garnered negative reactions from employees of CHCC and some even threatened to leave the hospital. An employee, one that has been with CHCC even before it became a corporation, referred to the times back then as the “dark ages” of his medical career.
The nominations must be acted upon by the Senate through a public hearing before being officially appointed to the CHCC board. The date and specifics of the public hearing have yet to be announced.
