The Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. is asking for a budget of $116.8 million for fiscal year 2023, even as CHCC chief executive officer Esther L. Muna also pointed out yesterday that policies such as the \u201ctouchback\u201d requirement for foreign workers and lack of sufficient funding make it difficult for them to recruit and retain nurses. <\/p>\n
House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee chair Rep. Donald M. Manglona (Ind-Rota) also disclosed at yesterday\u2019s budget hearing for CHCC that CHCC was not included in the administration\u2019s original budget submission. He said they anticipate CHCC\u2019s budget request to be included in the administration\u2019s revised budget submission, which they expect to receive by July 1. <\/p>\n
He said that CHCC did provide the Legislature with what they have in regards to their budget request: In total, CHCC is requesting $116,811,509 for the upcoming fiscal year. Of that amount, $71.7 million will be allocated for personnel, $41.3 million for operations, and $3.78 million for utilities. <\/p>\n
Manglona said the agency\u2019s combined \u201call other expenses\u201d comes to a total of roughly $45.1 million. <\/p>\n
In addition, he said, CHCC projects they will receive $93,903,284 in total revenue collections throughout 2023 fiscal year, derived from five revenue funding sources within the agency.<\/p>\n
He said $92 million of all projected revenue collections would come from revenue sources on Saipan, with the remaining amount provided by the agency\u2019s public health program, Bureau of Environmental Health, Medicaid, Rota and Tinian. <\/p>\n
With a budget request of $116.8 million and $92 million projected revenue collections, Manglona said that CHCC would still be short by about $22.9 million. He said CHCC requests that this $22.9 million be provided through a local appropriation. <\/p>\n
Of this amount, Manglona said, $8.2 million will be used to provide funding for 166 new full-time employees that CHCC seeks to employ this coming fiscal year. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe remaining amount of this request shall be used to cover various expenses, including the increased costs of medication for oncology patients, funding for utilities and capital improvements,\u201d Manglona said.<\/p>\n
Mu\u00f1a told the Ways and Means Committee that the budget approved by the CHCC board of trustees represents continuous improvements for the hospital and health system.<\/p>\n
Mu\u00f1a said they have added a radiologist and cardiologist to their staff and that this is on top of their only other specialists\u2014an oncologist, nephrologist, otolaryngologist, and orthopedic surgeon.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll come with a heavy price tag but are still not near what is offered and paid for in other U.S. hospitals,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The CHCC CEO said expanding services in their health system is critical to improving the health and livelihoods of all people who live in the CNMI.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut just like any hospital, we have to spend first to get paid. We have to spend on personnel, equipment, and support services, including nursing, maintenance, and billers,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Mu\u00f1a said that\u2019s specifically difficult when CHCC never really had a proper investment from the CNMI government for health.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s difficult, she said, when there are Medicaid policies that provide high matching percentage by the local government or that the local government consistently does not match the territorial share.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s difficult when you have policies that make it difficult for us to recruit and retain nurses, such as the \u2018touchback\u2019 regulation and lack of appropriation,\u201d Mu\u00f1a said.<\/p>\n
\u201cTouchback\u201d refers to a brief period when certain foreign workers are required to exit the CNMI and return to their home country after a certain number of renewals of their work visas. Some workers will be affected by the provision starting next year.<\/p>\n
Mu\u00f1a said it\u2019s been challenging for CHCC when they have personnel experiencing burnout during the COVID-19 response, such that a decision to leave CHCC and the CNMI is easier to make.<\/p>\n
She said one of the most valuable and cost-effective ways to improve a person\u2019s health and well-being is health promotion and disease prevention.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s difficult to provide adequate health promotion and disease promotion when there\u2019s this myth that the federal government will pay for everything,\u201d the CEO said.<\/p>\n
Mu\u00f1a noted that even the federal Infrastructure Act has no special grant to build a new hospital.<\/p>\n
She said CNMI needs an upgraded hospital facility.<\/p>\n
CHCC has added more personnel from health equity grants and grants that emphasize public health and mental health.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need more surgical suites and more rooms dedicated to intensive care needs,\u201d Mu\u00f1a said.<\/p>\n
She said the amount that they\u2019re asking for is tremendous and that they based this on the needs of the community.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlease consider this as an investment. Think of what we can achieve for our people. Think of providing us the tools to combat health issues affecting our people and providing much medical treatment,\u201d Mu\u00f1a said the lawmakers.<\/p>\n
At the budget hearing, CHCC chief financial officer Perlie Santos made a presentation on their budget needs and requests. She explained, among other things, as to why the CNMI government must provide adequate funding for health in the Commonwealth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. is asking for a budget of $116.8 million for fiscal year…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":369750,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[666,508],"class_list":["post-369748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-chcc","tag-fy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369748","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\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=369748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369748\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/369750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}