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Torres asks help to lift Medicaid cap
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Posted on Mar 29 2019
Gov. Ralph DLG Torres is hoping Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan (Ind-MP) could help in lifting a year of the extension of the Medicaid cap, a move that would address the current state of the said program in the CNMI.
Torres has written a letter to Sablan early this month asking for a Congressional solution that would help the CNMI Medicaid Office, whose funds are expected to be used up at the end of the month. He has also sent a separate letter to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex M. Azar II asking for additional assistance to the program.
The local Medicaid office is left with $270,000 cash on hand, according to the letter, funds that were provided through the expanded Affordable Care Act or more popularly known as Obamacare.
“That’s why we’re encouraging Congressman Kilili to help us lift the year of the extension to the cap. The money that was given to us, we obviously exhausted that, so we’re at zero now,” Torres told Saipan Tribune.
“That’s why it is important to ask our [Sablan] to please lift the cap because while others are not spending their money, we’ve used our share. [We’ve] done well in maximizing usage of those funds. I thank the Medicaid office for expediting and making sure we use those funds. But at this point, we need those caps lifted.”
The CNMI operates its Medicaid program under the authority of Section 1902(j) of the Social Security Act, which stated that the Commonwealth received an appropriation of $1.1 million for the next four fiscal years (1994 to 1997). That amount increased by $500,000 for FY 1998 and for FYs 2006 and 2007 jumped by $1 million and $2 million each.
Sablan said he included $36 million for Medicaid in an amendment for H.R. 268, disaster supplemental appropriation, during the floor debates but Republicans in the Senate removed the money when the bill reached their chamber.
