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HPMR contract extended to end of 2005
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Posted on Aug 15 2005
For the nth time, the NMI Retirement Fund extended its contract with third party administrator Hawaii Pacific Medical Referral up to end of December this year pending negotiations for the privatization of the government’s group health insurance program.
Fund administrator Karl T. Reyes said yesterday that HPMR will continue to provide services until a new health insurance company is chosen to handle the entire program.
“We have asked them to extend [their] services up to Dec. 31,” he said.
Also, he said the Request for Proposal for the health insurance privatization is also being extended.
This means that negotiations with the proposer, Select Care, will resume in November, he said, noting that government consultant on healthcare insurance Karen Bauder is currently tied up with Guam and can only handle the CNMI issue by November this year. Bauder was also hired by Guam to address its healthcare insurance program.
Reyes said that, although the Fund is negotiating with Select Care, no awarding of contract has been made yet.
“It’s been identified but it’s not yet awarded. We’re still negotiating with them,” said Reyes.
Bauder has been working on the proposal of Select Care, one of only two companies that responded to the Fund’ RFP to privatize the group health plan.
Reyes said it takes a considerable time to come up with a final agreement due to major concerns, especially on costs and types of services.
The Fund last extended HPMR’s contract in June to August 31. HPMR’s three-year contract originally expired in July 2004.
As the government remains unprepared to implement the privatization, the contract gets extended almost every quarter.
