Public Health backs hospital privatization

The Department of Public Health has backed a proposal to transform the Commonwealth’s only hospital into an autonomous agency.

The House Committee on Health, Education and Welfare held a public hearing yesterday on a bill to create a Commonwealth Healthcare Corporation. The bill is seen as a move to pattern the CNMI’s health care system after the U.S. model. In most U.S. jurisdictions, hospitals are separate, self-governing entities.

In comments submitted to the legislative committee, Public Health Secretary Joseph Kevin Villagomez said that a corporation system would promote efficiency in delivering healthcare services in the CNMI.

“Autonomy in the day-to-day operations of the Commonwealth Health Center, autonomy in the hiring process for both medical and non-medical personnel, autonomy in the procurement of medications, medical supplies and non-medical supplies and equipment—all of these will allow for efficiency in the delivery of healthcare services to the people of the CNMI,” Villagomez said.

He noted that the hospital may continue to need appropriations from the central government even after the bill has become law. “The goal, however, that these appropriations will slowly start to decrease because of the ability of the new corporation to manage its financial and operational status,” he said.

Villagomez raised the issue of providing health care to the poor. He said a universal insurance program may be one of the solutions to this problem.

“I look forward to working closely with this body and the administration to ensure that there is a smooth transition period from the current setup to the proposed setup in the Commonwealth Healthcare Corporation Act of 2008,” he said.

Addressing the House committee, a CHC physician attested to the hospital’s commitment to keeping the cost of healthcare down in the Commonwealth. Dr. Don Bader said that increasing fees and charges is not the only way a self-governing hospital can support itself. Improving the collection system is a more practical approach, he said, and an independent hospital would have more motivation to do this than would a government-run hospital.

For his part, the bill’s author said that proposal is “a leap in the right direction” for the health care system. Rep. Heinz Hofschneider stressed the urgency of the issue, and called on fellow lawmakers not to see the bill through enactment. The Commonwealth, he said, had already “missed a lot of opportunities to do this because we failed to work beyond politics.”

As Villagomez noted, the legislation or similar versions of it has been discussed, passed by the Legislature, rejected by the Executive Branch, and again reconsidered by both branches in one form or another several times in the past years.