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HMO supplants CNMI liaison office in Manila
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Posted on Dec 17 1998
The Department of Public Health has finally selected a Manila-based health maintenance organization that will strip the CNMI-Manila Liaison Office the job of assisting medical referral patients from the Marianas, according to Health Secretary Joseph K. Villagomez.
He said from now on until December 1999, Asia Health and Hospital Management, Inc. (AHHMI) will assist NMI medical referral patients in the Philippines.
This includes fetching patients to and from the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, taking them to the hospital, overseeing the treatment, scheduling patients’ appointments with doctors, coordinating medical consultations, and submitting progress reports to the Commonwealth Health Center.
He said AHHMI will be paid on a commission basis. It was agreed that AHHMI will get 10 percent of whatever medical costs the patient it assisted will incur.
“They’re gonna be charging us about 10 percent of the patient’s total medical bills. It will save us a lot of money. We no longer have to maintain an office and staff and pay for their overhead,” Villagomez said.
“If we don’t have a patient, we don’t have to pay the HMO. Whereas if we maintain a medical referral office there, even if we don’t have a patient, we still have to spend money because of the overhead,” he added.
AHHMI bested several other HMOs which submitted proposals. It is a corporation owned by a group of Filipino bankers headed by Philippine Finance Secretary Edgardo Espiritu. It is based in Makati, the Philippines’ business capital.
According to Villagomez, AHHMI was selected because of its extensive experience in assisting medical referral patients.
It has connections with over 200 hospitals throughout the archipelago, including prestigious ones like St. Luke’s Hospital, Cardinal Santos Memorial Hospital, Makati Medical Center, etc.
AHHMI is also the same HMO providing similar services to the Federated States of Micronesia for nearly a decade now.
Villagomez said AHHMI’s contract is just for a year. But is renewable depending on its performance.
Health records showed, very few patients were sent to Manila during recent years for medical purposes. The majority were sent to Hawaii.
