Hospital gets more time

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has given the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. more time to correct deficiencies it uncovered during the last survey of the Commonwealth Health Center.

The last survey saw CHCC in violation of seven out of 24 standard conditions.

The extension was granted last Oct. 25 and is a welcome reprieve for CHCC as the alternative would have been involuntary termination, which would have effectively cut off Medicaid funding that 70 percent of the hospital’s patients rely on.

The Oct. 25 letter from CMS stated that the extension gives CHCC another reprieve in correcting its shortcomings related to the requirements for participation as a provider of services as per the Medicare Program established under Title XVIII of the Social Security Act.

CHC has been out of compliance with these standards since 2011.

Since then, CHC has been working to establish itself as a public medical service provider and strives to provide such services in cooperation with CMS.

The last survey done by CMS was last Sept. 12, 2014. As of this date, CMS has yet to conduct another survey to evaluate CHC’s present condition, but CHCC chief executive officer Esther Muña is confident in the efforts that the island’s lone public health center has put in to obtain CMS compliance.

“We’ve increased our staffing and made sure that areas that were previously not functioning are functioning. Things like that, we had to address to reduce our citations,” she said. “We’ve gotten more training with our staff, which thoroughly discusses what the regulations mean. We’ve done that. From there, we’ve given them a plan of what we are trying to do.”

The CMS funding is crucial to the daily functions of CHC. According to Muña, healthcare services in the CNMI would be even more challenging without the CMS funding because a high percentage of the population relies on it.

“About 70 percent of people coming into CHC relies on Medicaid,” said Muña.

CHC’s first CMS survey yielded a result of 13 out of 24 standard conditions violated, and was declared in “Immediate Jeopardy” status. This meant that by just going into CHC, residents were risking harm, impairment, or even death.

As of Sept. 12, 2014, the last survey yielded a better result, with only seven out of 24 standard conditions violated.