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Igisomar bill wants new mileage program for medical referrals
Sen. Sixto Igisomar (R-Saipan) has introduced a bill to establish a CNMI medical referral mileage program to defray the airfare costs for patients.
As the CNMI healthcare facilities continue to provide inadequate medical care to address the increasing medical needs of the community, the rising costs in airfare continue to be a financial burden for the CNMI Medical Referral Program when making travel arrangements for patients, escorts, or health care staff.
According to Igisomar, from 2012 to 2014, the CNMI Medical Referral Program spent an average of $3.2 million in excess of funds appropriated per fiscal year for airfare, subsistence allowance, hotel accommodations, and medical claims.
There have been previous attempts to defray airfare costs through Public Law 9-54 that required all accrued miles earned at the expense of the government to be allocated to the CNMI Medical Referral Program.
However, Public Law 10-79 repealed Public Law 9-54 due to several problems that were not clearly addressed in Public Law 9-54, such as definitions of terms and how to properly transfer accrued miles earned through government funds to individuals in need under the CNMI Medical Referral Program, Igisomar’s bill said.
In addition, Public Law 10-79 stated that, at the time of its enactment, airlines were unable to establish a master account to be used to collect all accrued miles under the expense of the government.
The airlines can now make the arrangements. However, this would result in the government forfeiting major discounts of up to 50 percent off select economy fares that are currently in place and have resulted in huge savings for the government.
The bill added that many government employees who travel at the expense of the government personally benefit with the accrued miles to their personal travel accounts, at a time when the CNMI Medical Referral Program has denied patients seeking off-island medical care due to limited financial resources.
Igisomar’s bill seeks to design “a system that would transfer all accrued miles earned at the expense of the government to patients, escorts, or health care staff.”
