Oversight held on insurance penalties

by Sabrina Salas Matanane

Guam - Vice Speaker B.J. Cruz says he wasn't disappointed but was dismayed by Department of Administration director Benita Manglona's responses to his questions regarding her enforcement of Public Law 30-93, which requires that if a health insurance company contracted with GovGuam fails to meet reporting requirements related to medical loss data it would be assessed a penalty equal to 2.5% of the premiums paid in the succeeding quarter.

The vice speaker contends Calvo's SelectCare should have been assessed a $900,000 penalty for failing to meet the requirement on at least two occasions. Manglona this morning did not directly say that a penalty should be imposed, but said the law was ambiguous and she had been working and discussing the ambiguity with the attorney general's office. She also implied that it makes no sense to demand payment to a vendor the government owes money to.

Manglona said, "If we are going to seek a penalty from the vendor for a one-day or two-day deadline it would be incumbent on us to offset that penalty with a penalty to impose on the government for it was late payments."

Manglona also said the law was another unfunded mandate in that there is no funding provided because if she were to assess a penalty she would have to hire a hearing officer to ensure due process, but when asked, she could not provide an estimation on how much that would cost. Cruz said, "I'm dismayed that someone responsible for all the monetary and for all the money of the Government of Guam is so glib about just making decisions on not going to move forward without having done a due diligence determination of how much it was going to cost."

The vice speaker meanwhile asked for the correspondence Manglona had between DOA and the AG's Office regarding the ambiguity in the law. She said she would think about it because the correspondence was confidential.