DUE to unemployment and reduced work hours, the number of indigent patients in the CNMI is rising. Medicaid recipients alone increased by 27 percent in fiscal year 2001 even as federal funding for Medicaid remains low.
In FY 2001, for example, the local Medicaid program’s actual expenditure reached $10.7 million, but the federal government capped its budget for FY 2001 at only $2.01 million.
This means that the federal government funded only 19 percent of the actual Medicaid costs in the CNMI.
Helen Sablan, CNMI Medicaid administrator, said the CNMI does not only match the $2.01 million, but also shoulders the remaining $8.6 million of the actual costs.
She said even in FY 2000, the actual costs of services provided to the program recipients reached $11.5 million, but the federal government capped the funding to only $1.9 million.
“Even the $2.1 million budgeted by the federal government for FY 2002 is not enough to cover the costs of what our recipients need. We are absorbing the additional costs,” said Sablan.
Pete Untalan, special assistant to Health Secretary Dr. James U. Hofschneider, said the CNMI had “overmatched” the program funding for years now.
He said the rise in the number of Medicaid and MIAP recipients was a result of the depressed economy.
“People are coming in because they don’t have jobs, their workhours have been reduced, therefore they are paid less, or they got laid off,” said Untalan.
Sablan said Medicaid owes CHC “a lot of money.”
She said CHC is paid every end of each fiscal year from the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which can only be tapped once the Medicaid federal funding is maximized.
“But this amount from CHIP is only minimal,” said Sablan.
In 2001, the number of Medicaid recipients rose to 7,962, compared to 6,253 in 2000, Sablan said.
According to Untalan, the number is expected to further increase in 2002 with the lifting of some policy restrictions.
Since Nov. 2001, Medicaid no longer consider “ancestral lands” as part of a household’s resources or properties in computing its benefits.
“Even if they have ancestral lands, that won’t be counted in their properties, so that increases their chance of being into the Medicaid program,” said Untalan.
The Medically Indigent Assistance Program had 638 recipients from Feb. 5 to Sept. 30, 2001.
MIAP members are indigent individuals who do not have health insurance coverage and do not qualify for Medicaid due to certain restrictions, including citizenship.
Majority of the MIAP recipients are citizens of the Freely Associated States.
The program offers reduced fees for medical care services, and is open to local CNMI residents, U.S. citizens and others who have established legal residency in the islands. Non-resident workers may also become MIAP recipients, provided they meet all the requirements.
