DPH renews PHI for five more years

After nearly three months of waiting, the only pharmacy that provides services to Medicaid patients in the CNMI was given another five-year contract by the Department of Public Health.

DPH deputy secretary for administration Joseph Santos informed PHI Pharmacy president Bruce Cohen yesterday afternoon that the pharmacy has been selected anew to provide outpatient pharmacy services at the Commonwealth Health Center.

PHI Pharmacy has been servicing the CNMI public health for the past 10 years.

Cohen said he is glad to be given the goods news, although there was still no written agreement between DPH and PHI as of yesterday afternoon.

He added that PHI would always be glad to provide its services to CNMI patients under the Medicaid and the Medical Indigent Assistance Program. PHI is the only pharmacy in the CNMI that has been providing assistance and services under the two programs.

PHI’s previous contract expired in July but DPH opted to extend its contract on a monthly basis due to the delayed release of the Request for Proposals.

Last week’s reports, however, indicated that Public Health Secretary Joseph Kevin P. Villagomez has cancelled the RFP due to the relocation of the pharmacy to the new Dr. Jose T. Villagomez Center for Public Health and Dialysis facility.

PHI was the only pharmacy that had responded to the first RFP. Villagomez earlier said a new RFP would be released three weeks thereafter.

The PHI Pharmacy’s board of directors, composed of local business leaders, expressed disappointment over the cancellation and issuance of a new RFP. Cohen said PHI complied with the necessary requirement to fulfill the bid requirements for a pharmacy in the CNMI. The board wrote to DPH expressing that the pharmacy could no longer operate on a monthly contract with the CNMI government.

Yesterday’s announcement puts an end to the long wait for a decision on the issue. Had DPH not renewed PHI’s contract, the pharmacy would have moved to a new location in Mariana Heights II Building in Puerto Rico.

Cohen said he is ecstatic over the good news as this would allow them to continue serving Medicaid patients, who comprise 35 percent of their daily 400-plus prescriptions.

Cohen said the loss of the pharmacy at the hospital would mean “chaos” to all who depend on Medicaid privileges.

“It would cripple the hospital,” he said, adding that under federal law, a hospital’s in-patient pharmacy couldn’t dispense medications to outpatients.

Cohen conceded that the cash-strapped government owes the pharmacy a “substantial amount,” but he said this is not as important as helping and assisting the sick and needy.

“Despite that, we’ve done a great job and we keep on providing excellent service to people,” he added.

PHI Pharmacy, which operates under U.S. pharmacy standards of practice, fills approximately over 450 prescriptions per weekday and over 150 prescriptions on weekends and holidays.

The PHI team includes a manager and pharmacist, an assistant manager and pharmacist, two staff pharmacists, five technicians, a registrar, three claims processors and an accountant.

PHI Pharmacy has been the only provider of pharmaceutical need of Medicaid patients in the CNMI. It has also been the only one that provides pediatric nutritional products and supplement. Other programs that it has extended to the Commonwealth are the workers compensation and the indigent program that share costing of medications for the needy.