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‘Torres administration gave CHCC $11M ARPA money’
Perlita Santos
The previous Torres administration provided $11 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding to the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. and CHCC did receive that money in full, according to CHCC chief financial officer Perlita Santos on Wednesday.
In response to Rep. Marissa Renee Flores’ (Ind-Saipan) questions during the House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee hearing on CHCC’s proposed 2024 budget, Santos said the $11 million was used to augment their financial revenue deficit in fiscal year 2020.
With the increase in the Medicaid population due to the public health emergency arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, CHCC’s costs also went up, Santos said. However, their 2022 cost reimbursements from Medicaid were based on 2020 cost, which means they did not receive an adequate reimbursement in 2022.
“So the $11 million funded the expenditure to support the Medicaid PE [Presumptive Eligibility] patients that went to the hospital,” she said.
Santos said they have yet to adjust the 2022 cost report to recover that from Medicaid.
“So the $11 million was used to fund the 2022 cost,” Santos said.
