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Medical referral allowance suspended
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Posted on Dec 06 2006
The subsistence allowance for medical referral patients and escorts is the latest benefit to be suspended in view of the government’s fiscal crisis.
The Department of Public Health has adopted emergency regulations to eliminate the payment of subsistence allowance of $20 per day for medical referral patients on outpatient status, as well as for family or friend escorts while at the referral location.
“Because of the severe and austere fiscal situation of the CNMI government, namely the Department of the Public Health Medical Referral Program, the Secretary of Health is forced to make necessary adjustments on expenditure within the DPH to ensure that finite resources are re-directed to critical services that affect direct patient care. Eliminating subsistence has no negative effect on the medical outcome of a patient’s condition or ailment,” the department said in a public notice published in the latest issue of the Commonwealth Register.
The suspension of the allowance became effective last month and will remain in effect until March 2007.
In July 2006, the Fitial administration shut down the CNMI government’s liaison offices in both Hawaii and Guam and transferred their duties to the Health Department’s medical referral program.
Public Law 15-24, the government’s budget for fiscal year 2007, provides the medical referral program a total allocation of $4.4 million. This represents a 17-percent increase from its previous funding of $3.8 million.
The program’s budget includes $3.7 million for operations and about $700,000 for the employment of up to 26 personnel.
In related news, DPH has a pending proposal to ease travel regulations for escorts accompanying medical referral patients. DPH wants to remove the requirement for escorts to fill out a travel voucher within 10 days after they return from the referral location. The task is burdensome and redundant, the department said.
