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Fund to extend HPMR contract to June ‘05
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Posted on Nov 08 2004
The NMI Retirement Fund board of trustees is now considering further extending the contract of Hawaii Pacific Medical Referral to June 2005, admitting that the government remains unprepared for program privatization.
The Fund had initially granted HPMR an extension of up to December 2004 to perform third-party administrator services for the Group Health and Life Insurance program, which the Fund administers. This was later moved to February 2005.
Yesterday, Fund administrator Karl Reyes said the government would ask HPMR to render services up to middle of next year.
“We probably have to extend HPMR again. It looks like we’re extending them up to June,” he said.
He said this was the recommendation of an in-house committee tasked to handle the privatization program for the Group Health Life and Insurance Program.
Reyes said the program consultant’s work “is only halfway” done.
The Fund earlier projected to see full privatization of the program by March 1, 2005.
Reyes said that the Fund and HPMR would have to revise the contract with HPMR altogether since the extension exceeds six months.
The Fund board decided in March this year not to renew HPMR’s contract in anticipation of the full privatization of GHLI this year. HPMR’s original contract expired last July.
HPMR is the third-party administrator for the health insurance aspect of the Fund’s GHLI program.
The Babauta administration favors the full privatization of GHLI. In particular, the Executive Branch is pushing for the conversion of GHLI into a private, cafeteria-style health insurance program for government employees and retirees.
This approach would allow subscribers to choose specific health insurance providers that they want.
This would become possible when the government solicits bids from private health insurance providers, in which a group of three or more would be selected.
