$800K budget proposed for medical referral program

The fiscal year 2025 budget proposed by the Office of the Governor sets aside $800,000 for the Health Network Program (formerly known as the medical referral program) headed by the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp.

According to the budget proposal submitted by the Office of the Governor to the Legislature, the Office of the Governor is proposing a $800,000 allocation for the HNP program.

“This budget proposal allocates $800,000 of the total $6.5 million requested by CHCC for the operations and activities of the Health Network Program to defray the cost of medical care not available in the Commonwealth,” said the governor’s proposal.

However, based on CHCC’s previous projected expenditure for HNP for FY24, an allocation of $800,000 may not suffice.

CHCC chief executive officer Esther L. Muña recently submitted a letter to House Speaker Edmund S. Villagomez (Ind-Saipan) requesting funding for the HNP program.

Public Law 22-33, which returned the HNP program to CHCC, allows the corporation to submit a funding request to the governor and the Legislature if the appropriated funding has been exhausted prior to the end of the fiscal year.

In this case, not only was the appropriated funding insufficient, CHCC had to put up its own funds to keep the program going.

In her letter to Villagomez, Muña said as of March 31, 2024, the year-to-date expenditures for the program amounted to $2.3 million.

Muna, in her letter notes that of the $797,711 that the FY 2024 budget law appropriated to HNP, only $655,470 has been transferred.

According to Muña, based on CHCC’s annualized expenditures, the total projected expenditure for HNP for FY 2024 is expected to be around $4.6 million.

Muña said to ensure the smooth continuation of the program, CHCC has already advanced $1.6 million of its own funds to augment the funding shortfall for HNP.

CHCC asked the Legislature for an additional funding of $3.8 million to sustain the activities of the HNP and to return CHCC’s funds to its own coffers.

Esther Lizama Muña