Santos wants Medical Referral under essential service list

Teresita Santos

Sen. Teresita Santos (R-Rota) filed an unnumbered Senate Bill that would include the Medical Referral Program’s personnel part of the essential service list in the CNMI that would entitle its employees overtime pay if they work more than 80 hours per pay period.

Santos said the program has been providing medical assistance especially to patients under Medicaid since its primary service is for health, safety, and the welfare of the people. The Medical Referral Program has a 24-hour operation, seven days a week, and it is the only government agency that has offices in Guam, Hawaii, and the Philippines.

The Medical Referral office in the CNMI is currently understaffed as it only has six personnel and that’s why they still need to extend their work hours in order to complete the cases that need attention and to also perform their respective duties.

The staff, however, are only given compensatory time that they cannot use. Employees that are under compensatory time are just only given times off instead of overtime pay. Santos said civil service only allows government employees to accrue or earn compensatory time.

She said the Medical Referral office sends a monthly average of about 65 patients to Guam, close to 28 to Hawaii, and 20 to the Philippines. “Let’s say there’s an average of 200 patients a month and you only have six employees. Can you imagine the workload of one employee?”

“You have to process all the documents of these patients that also include medical evacuation and other emergency cases. You need all of their documents like patient’s history, medical records, vital signs, etc.,” said Santos.

“You need all of these documents in processing for medical referral. You must make sure all of the papers are there before you send it to the hospital where they are referred to,” added Santos.

Santos said this is why she wants a remedy as Public Law 18-56 only addresses funding sources of the Medical Referral Program. “It does not address the concern that Medical Referral Employees to be considered in essential service.”

“They should be included, if employees of other departments are considered in essential service then why not personnel in the Medical Referral Program. We’re talking about health, we’re talking about life and death of a medical referral patient,” Santos added.

She said with the Medical Referral Program being an essential service, it is just proper to pay its employees overtime to ensure continuity of the duties and obligations they provide to the people of the CNMI.