Medicare team makes a surprise visit to CHC

A two-member team from U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services is on island for a surprise visit at the Commonwealth Health Center.

Since arriving on Wednesday, the team, led by survey certificate and enforcement branch manager Rufus Arther, has been meeting with healthcare corporation officials, hospital staff, and administrators to check the validity of a report the hospital earlier submitted to Medicare.

Healthcare corporation board chair Joaquin Torres confirmed with the Saipan Tribune yesterday that he, board member Roy Rios, and chief executive officer Juan N. Babauta met the visiting officials on their first day.

The team was seen checking out several hospital units and sections as early as 8am yesterday. They are expected to leave the CNMI today. The team had just come from Guam where they made a similar inspection of that territory’s hospital.

According to Torres, the surprise visit is a routine check by the federal agency to determine if all corrective plans are being implemented as reported. There were some inquiries about the hospital’s financial condition but Torres said the team mainly wanted to make sure that the delivery of healthcare services will not be affected.

Medicare first received complaints about the quality of the hospital’s services in 2010, prompting the agency to investigate. It uncovered serious deficiencies and threatened to terminate its “provider agreement” with the hospital if corrective actions are not taken. These corrective action plans were enumerated by CHC in its report. This surprise visit is part of a Medicare requirement that validates the content of the plans of corrections.

Torres said the visitors noted many developments and progress relating to the deficiencies earlier cited and that they did not bring up the subject of termination.

Torres said the team was also informed about the corporation’s budget-just $5 million in seed capital for this fiscal year.

“They have many questions about our budget and the hospital finances.because they are similarly concerned that it will impact the healthcare delivery to our people,” he said, adding that the two officials are concerned about the “stability” of the only public hospital on island.

CHC receives $8 million to $10 million in reimbursements from Medicare every year.