Fund gets 2 proposals for health insurance

Two local companies submitted their separate proposals for the government’s privatized group health insurance program, beating the Feb. 1 deadline set by the NMI Retirement Fund.

“We’ve got two,” said Fund administrator Karl T. Reyes yesterday.

He declined to identify the proposers, saying the information remains confidential.

He said the proposals have been forwarded to the Fund consultant in Hawaii for review.

Among the private health providers in the CNMI are Moylan, Calvo’s, StayWell, and Pacificare.

Earlier, Reyes said that StayWell had already expressed disinterest in participating in the program.

StayWell just ended its arrangement with the Fund’s third party administrator, Hawaii Pacific Medical Referral, to serve CNMI patients in Manila hospitals due to the Fund’s delay in extending HPMR’s contract.

Reyes admitted that the Fund’s Group Health Insurance Program is indeed an expensive proposition.

“It’s not cheap. It’s expensive anywhere you go,” he said.

The privatization committee, composed of representative from the Fund, Governor’s Office, Department of Public Health, and Procurement and Supply, issued the Request for Proposal last December.

For the entire month of January, the group did not get any proposal.

Meantime, Reyes said yesterday that there is no plan to re-issue the RFP to solicit more proposals.

“We’ll look at the two proposals. We can’t tell yet if we’d actually choose both,” he said.

The Fund had wanted to award contracts to three providers to allow a cafeteria-type of insurance program.

The Fund hopes that program privatization could take place upon the termination of the Fund’s extended contract with HPMR’s, which is in June this year.

HPMR said the Fund has so far not extended its contract. If this is not done before Feb. 15, HPMR would notify all its health providers about the termination of their services this month. HPMR contract ends on Feb. 28.

The Fund initially extended HPMR’s contract up to December 2004 but it was later moved to February 2005.

The Fund board had decided not to renew HPMR’s contract, which expired last July, in anticipation of the full privatization of GHLI in 2004.

The Babauta administration favors the full privatization of the Fund’s Group Health and Life Insurance Program.

Right now, only the Fund’s life insurance component is privatized.