{"id":275137,"date":"2018-05-01T06:05:25","date_gmt":"2018-04-30T20:05:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=275137"},"modified":"2018-05-01T06:05:25","modified_gmt":"2018-04-30T20:05:25","slug":"kchc-closing-a-disservice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/kchc-closing-a-disservice\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018KCHC closing a disservice\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Reps. Vinson Sablan (Ind-Saipan), left, and Edwin K. Propst (Ind-Saipan) review a bill as Sen. Sixto Igisomar (R-Saipan), right, converses with Rep. Blas \u201cBJ\u201d Jonathan Attao (Ind-Saipan) during yesterday\u2019s Saipan and Northern Islands Legislative Delegation session. (Erwin Encinares)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Saipan and Northern Islands Legislative Delegation after a five-hour session believes it is appropriate to conduct an investigation on the recent closing of the Kagman Community Health Center.<\/p>\n

The delegation in yesterday\u2019s lengthy session discussing other matters said they see it fitting that the delegation start conducting investigations on the recent shutdown of the sole healthcare provider in the Kagman area, with Senate President Arnold I. Palacios (R-Saipan) even referring to it as a \u201cdisservice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTwo members [along with the other delegation members] concurred that we should have something official coming from the delegation because KCHC is on Saipan,\u201d said delegation chair Rep. John Paul Sablan (R-Saipan) on the matter in an interview.<\/p>\n

Sablan disclosed that the delegation would be summoning both the KCHC and the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. to find out what transpired between the two prior to the former\u2019s closing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all know that the [KCHC\u2019s] inception\u2026has availed valuable services not just to the community of Kagman but to the surrounding areas\u2026many of our constituents in the community have availed of its services,\u201d said Palacios.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was hopeful that the [chief executive officer] of CHCC and the director of [KCHC] would be able to work out their differences in terms of who is running KCHC. Obviously that didn\u2019t work out,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Palacios stated that he was considering approaching the Department of Public Lands to request them to \u201crevoke the grant of public domain it issued to CHCC and reissue the grant of public domain to KCHC.\u201d<\/p>\n

Delegation committee on Health and Welfare Vice Speaker Janet Maratita (R-Saipan) said that in a recent meeting with the CHCC CEO Esther Mu\u00f1a, she found out that KCHC\u2019s closing had \u201cnothing to do with CHCC.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026It\u2019s the doctor at KCHC that decided to close the center,\u201d Maratita reported to the delegation of her recent meeting with Mu\u00f1a. She added that she would be meeting with Mu\u00f1a in a closed-door meeting late afternoon yesterday.<\/p>\n

Maratita said in a brief conversation yesterday that KCHC was reportedly closed down for training since April 27, 2018.<\/p>\n

House Speaker Rafael Demapan (R-Saipan) said when he learned of KCHC closing, he tasked House Health Committee chair Rep. Jose Itibus (R-Saipan), who then reported to the delegation that the CHCC board has reportedly instructed the CHCC CEO not to close the clinic.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026The position of the board on that is they do not want [KCHC] to close down and they really laid it down to her that they want the clinic to [continue operating]. Whatever is going on between the CEO and the director of KCHC\u2026is internal,\u201d he said, adding that he reportedly received assurance from a CHCC board member that they instructed Mu\u00f1a not to close KCHC.<\/p>\n

Sen. Sixto Igisomar (R-Saipan), who is vice chair of the Senate Committee on Health and Welfare, said that he concurs with Palacios on conducting an oversight and fact-finding on KCHC and CHCC.<\/p>\n

Getting heated, Igisomar believes there is \u201c\u2026incompetence and irresponsibility happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhose mess [are we] supposed to clean up again?\u201d asked Igisomar, adding that he was aware that it was their duty as legislators to address such issues, but it \u201cfrustrates [him] that it occurs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will go ahead and listen to [them] because it is very irresponsible; KCHC provides 100 percent payment on Medicaid, and a lot of people go there for that, and we need that center,\u201d he said. \u201cSomebody\u2019s got to fire somebody,\u201d said Igisomar, adding that \u201cthis should not have happened and it should have gotten this far.\u201d<\/p>\n

KCHC reportedly to schedule clinics June 2018<\/p>\n

According to a statement from Mu\u00f1a, the KCHC closed not due to conflicts, but under the prerogative of Dr. Katherine Elstun, who is currently the KCHC medical director.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring our conversation with Dr. Katherine Elstun on April 30, 2018, we learned that the nonprofit organization is cancelling clinics all week and that they will not be scheduling clinics until June 2018,\u201d Mu\u00f1a said.<\/p>\n

Elstun reportedly closed the clinic since April 27, 2018 for \u201ctraining.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the medical director of KCHC, we expect that she is in the best position to understand her patients\u2019 health needs,\u201d Mu\u00f1a said.<\/p>\n

Mu\u00f1a added in a statement that CHCC is required by law to put in place management controls immediately after the expiration of the Federally Qualified Health Center grant, which is scheduled to expire yesterday.<\/p>\n

A federal law mandate requires CHCC to impose management controls immediately after the expiration of the FQHC grant. According to her statement, the CHCC has already completed an initially physical inventory of clinic assets.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Health Resources and Services Administration], the grantor, has communicated guidance and instructions to CHCC in the disposition procedures. One of the most important management requirements is the safeguarding of the assets to prevent loss, damage, or theft,\u201d said the statement.<\/p>\n

Regarding land disputes between CHCC and KCHC, the statement said the two would be meeting today to discuss the \u201cnew entity\u2019s needs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026Including the AG\u2019s opinion on what CHCC can provide to KCHC. CHCC has also met with the employees of CHCC-KCHC to discuss the change of ownership. CHCC is committed to the health of the entire CNMI and will assist in the smooth separation between CHCC and KCHC.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Saipan and Northern Islands Legislative Delegation after a five-hour session believes it is appropriate…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":275144,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[666,140,14389,285],"class_list":["post-275137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","tag-chcc","tag-commonwealth-healthcare-corp","tag-katherine-elstun","tag-kchc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275137","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\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=275137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275137\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/275144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}