The Office of the Attorney General has concluded that both the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. and Kagman Community Health Center are at fault in their dispute even as the Department of Public Lands has started to look into revocating the grant of public domain to the corporation to allow the Kagman clinic to continue operation.<\/p>\n
In a lengthy Health and Welfare Committee meeting of the Saipan and Northern Islands Legislative Delegation last Friday, both CHCC and KCHC responded to questions relating to the removal of the Kagman clinic from its facility on Lemmai Road, Kagman II, which is public land.<\/p>\n
According to an OAG opinion, KCHC has \u201cjeopardized its ability to remain at its current facility\u201d because CHCC could not transfer the property to KCHC.<\/p>\n
Since KCHC was awarded the Federally Qualified Health Clinic Grant through grantor Health Resources and Service Administration, KCHC also became independent from CHCC. However, KCHC was operating in a facility that is titled to CHCC, allowing the latter to have the authority to change the locks and alarm code at the Kagman facility and forcing the KCHC to operate at the social hall of Santa Soledad Parish.<\/p>\n
According to CHCC chief executive officer Esther Mu\u00f1a, KCHC staff were reportedly \u201cdeleting data\u201d and \u201cshredding documents,\u201d forcing CHCC to change its locks and alarm codes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis could probably be answered by creative use of designations or by leasing the property to KCHC directly,\u201d said the OAG. \u201cKCHC\u2019s demand for the transfer of this property is curious because the Notice of Funding Opportunity plainly states that property does not automatically transfer, if it transfers at all, to a new grantee.\u201d <\/p>\n
In an interview with acting DPL secretary Richard Villagomez, he confirmed that DPL would be looking into \u201cdesignating the property\u201d to KCHC. He declined to disclose further details as he added it was still up for investigation. Villagomez also did not set a timeline. <\/p>\n
Vice speaker Rep. Janet Maratita (R-Saipan), who was also the committee chair, said in an interview after the oversight hearing that the meeting yielded \u201ca good conclusion.\u201d
\n\u201cIt\u2019s in the hands of DPL now, since CHCC is not contesting to revoking the [grant of public domain] at Kagman, so that is a good thing that shows a positive result,\u201d said Maratita. She added that it was understood that CHCC \u201cneeded to follow set rules and regulations\u201d pertaining to the grant of public domain to avoid future liability issues with CHCC.<\/p>\n
Senate Health and Welfare Committee chair Sen. Teresita Santos (R-Rota), who attended the oversight meeting as a member of the audience, said in a statement to Saipan Tribune that she \u201cstrongly recommends\u201d CHCC execute a memorandum of agreement or memorandum of understanding with KCHC to allow them to continue their operations in their facility.<\/p>\n
Santos also suggests that CHCC render its \u201cunconditional assistance and support\u201d to KCHC regarding pharmaceutical support; supplies; services; auxiliary staffing; and more that is vital to the operation of KCHC until the end of the clinic\u2019s transition period set in the HRSA grant, which is 78 days as of publication.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf Rota Health Center is to follow the model or piggyback under KCHC\u2019s license, the former must ensure there is an open dialogue and complete transparency with CHCC as to its application, process, and all other pertinent information,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Office of the Attorney General has concluded that both the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[666,175,285,86],"class_list":["post-275511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-chcc","tag-dpl","tag-kchc","tag-oag"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275511","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=275511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275511\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}