To finalize an adequate payment plan, the local hospital has to realize energy savings of about $250,000 and lessen its average $500,000 monthly utility bill to a number it can afford, says Commonwealth Utilities Corp. board director David Sablan Jr.<\/p>\n
The payment plan would also entail a commitment to pay the hospital\u2019s past dues, said Sablan. The hospital, or the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp., owes about $16 million in past due accounts to CUC.<\/p>\n
In a payment plan proposal last month, CHCC executive director Esther Muna described changes to their monthly utility consumption.<\/p>\n
According to Muna, the hospital has \u201cinstalled new oil-less compressor chiller system; installed new energy-efficient hot water boiler system; placed areas in zones permitting us to shutdown non-critical\/non-patient services areas after hours\u201d which cuts the usage of their air handler units; \u201cbegan installation of a new energy-efficient HVAC system\u201d which is estimated to be completed in three months; and \u201cobtained a [Department of Interior] grant to develop a renewable energy system.\u201d<\/p>\n
When asked for a comment on these plans, Sablan said the question is if the hospital has allowed one of CUC\u2019s engineers to evaluate its cost savings.<\/p>\n
Speaking to these \u201cquantifiable savings,\u201d he said if the hospital\u2019s plans equated to about $250,000 in savings then CUC and the hospital \u201cmay have a possible agreement.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut they are going to need to have at least 300,000 in cash every month to pay,\u201d he added, as CUC owes about $500,000 in utilities a month. \u201cIf they are able to show they can pay $300,000, [and] they are able to show they can conserve $250,000, and we are able to monitor it, then I think we have the conditions for a working payment plan,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The CUC board met last week to discuss a \u201cdraft contract\u201d center around a reported $150,000 payment plan.<\/p>\n
For his part, Sablan disagrees with this payment of $150,000, as he says the hospital has said they can afford monthly payment of about $300,000 a month.<\/p>\n
Last week, the board directed its management to meet with CHCC to discuss a possible payment plan.<\/p>\n
According to Sablan, CUC has been close to working out contracts, or \u201cmemorandum of agreements,\u201d with the Public School System and the central government on payment plans for unpaid dues.<\/p>\n
With regards to the hospital, though, Sablan said they never come close.<\/p>\n
The letter from Muna proposes a payment of $250,000 for the month of June.<\/p>\n
It proposes that CHCC will then make \u201cat least\u201d $150,000 in monthly payments thereafter, using its current budget and revenues until \u201cCHCC completes installation of a renewable system.\u201d<\/p>\n
In her letter, Muna also acknowledges that their current billing is unaffordable while trying to provide quality health care to residents.<\/p>\n
Citing past financial audits, Muna said their operating losses are almost equivalent to their utilities cost.<\/p>\n
She also said their FY 2015 appropriated monthly budget is only $101,730.16, while their total utility charges for May was $444,300.72.<\/p>\n
She said insufficient funding has made it difficult to even spread payments throughout their operational needs and avoid discontinuation of critical services.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
To finalize an adequate payment plan, the local hospital has to realize energy savings of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[666,140,49,244],"class_list":["post-205912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","tag-chcc","tag-commonwealth-healthcare-corp","tag-cuc","tag-utility"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205912\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}