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Wanda Vázquez vetoes measure granting incentives to private healthcare centers



The governor Wanda Vázquez Garced Vetoed a package of five recently approved legislative measures, including Senate Joint Resolution 507, a measure that granted economic incentives to private health care centers and exempted them from paying for water and electricity services for the months of April, May and June.

Recently, voices within the health services sector had urged the approval of the measure due to the precarious economic situation that the primary emergency rooms are going through, which, during the emergency, have become the initial place where citizens go to search rapid diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19.

In issuing the express veto, Vázquez Garced said that, although he endorsed the purpose of the measure, it was unnecessary, since there are a series of federal aids and funds to attend hospitals and medical facilities. At the state level, for its part, it mentioned the approval of Joint Resolution 24-2020 that ordered the transfer of $ 7.5 million to the municipalities for the operation and expenses of the emergency rooms of the Diagnostic and Treatment Centers (CDT).

He added that the Fiscal Oversight Board (JSF) warned in a letter sent to both the Executive and the Legislative that state emergency funds under Act No. 91 of June 21, 1966, that the measure identifies, mainly, to subsidize the proposed incentives, are not available, reason why they recommended to take care of it with federal funds. “We understand it meritorious to direct our efforts to ensure that the items assigned to Puerto Rico through the CARES Act are disbursed as soon as possible to help the health sector in the most comprehensive and comprehensive way possible,” he said.

The measure gave monthly incentives to hospitals, CDTs and Family Health Centers consisting of $ 5,000 for each authorized bed, $ 150,000 for CDTs with emergency rooms with less than 24-hour operation, and $ 250,000 for CDTs with working emergency rooms. 24 hours.

Another measure that was vetoed by Vázquez Garced was the Joint Resolution of Chamber 640 that created the aid fund for the municipalities and their respective bodies of the Municipal Police, Emergency Management and Medical Emergencies. This fund was to be nourished by an allocation of $ 3 million from the Emergency Fund.

Among the benefits contemplated in the measure was the granting of up to $ 100 in reimbursement -after the evidence was presented- to those workers from any of the aforementioned municipal agencies who have had to invest in safety equipment or prevention materials because the municipal government could not supply it.

It also granted compensation equivalent to one month’s work to all municipal employees of Emergency Management, Medical Emergencies and personnel related to health services – with the exception of nurses – who were not absent during the decreed emergency.

Vázquez Garced indicated that days after this measure was presented, he signed Joint Chamber Resolution 659, which allocated a total of $ 500,000,000 in funds to attend the emergency caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Among the allocations contained in this measure, he said, there are several aimed at municipalities, as well as incentives for municipal police and firefighters.

In the case of Joint Resolution of Chamber 645, which -among other things- ordered the National Guard, in collaboration with the Department of Health, to carry out compulsory screenings of the COVID-19 virus on all passengers arriving in Puerto Rico Through any airport, Vázquez Garced said that there are fiscal considerations that prevent him from signing the measure. He added that, in addition, Administrative Bulletin Number OE-2020-022 was promulgated through which the National Guard Medical Unit was activated to take the temperature of travelers arriving on international flights.

“This measure does not identify where the funds will be used to fulfill its purposes and would seem to delegate to the Department of Health through a collaboration order the responsibility of using its resources to comply with the resolution. In this sense, the Health Department maintains that the responsibility for carrying out the rapid tests would have to fall on the National Guard because they do not have the personnel or the resources to subsidize the operation, ”he said, adding that the measure would have an impact of $ 8.7. million over the agency’s budget.

Vázquez Garced also granted an express veto to Joint Resolution of Chamber 648, which ordered the Puerto Rico Insurance Commissioner to issue any regulatory letter necessary for health insurance organizations and medical plan insurers to make weighted payments to facilities and health service organizations, for a term of 90 days. “This would create an onerous and uncertain economic situation for these entities, in addition to representing financing from the health insurance industry for the operations of hospital institutions,” said the governor.

The same fate was passed by the Joint Resolution of Chamber 649, which ordered the Health Insurance Administration (ASES) to authorize and order insurers to make weighted payments to health services facilities and organizations, by a ninety day term. “The issuance of weighted payments is prohibited by the regulations of the Centers for Medicare & Medical Services (CMS), as it arises from the Code of Federal Regulations. However, if opting to establish an intermediate payment procedure similar to what is proposed in the measure under discussion, this fact would require evaluation and prior approval by the CMS, ”he argued.

Last week the governor issued an express veto to nine other legislative measures that add to these five.

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