SEN. Ben Pangelinan doesn’t appear to be backing down from his criticism of the administration and the Guam Memorial Hospital’s treatment of TakeCare’s contract.

Last week, Pangelinan blamed Gov. Eddie Calvo for allowing the GMH board of trustees to consider canceling the contract, instead of protecting private businesses.

Pangelinan said when Sen. Dennis Rodriguez asked for Public Auditor Doris Flores Brooks to perform an independent review of GMH’s financial status with the island’s health insurance carriers, it was mainly due to the “ongoing impasse over the issue of the GMH direct payer agreement with TakeCare.”

“Gov. Calvo and the Guam Memorial Hospital's statements are an attempt to dismiss the truth and are essentially saying the Public Auditor did not do her job. Sen. Rodriguez specifically asked that she determine the validity of the accusations GMH was making about TakeCare when the board of trustees cancelled the direct payer agreement. Both Sen. Rodriguez and I agree that the Public Auditor did a fine job in determining that there was little difference between the insurance carriers,” the Barrigada senator said.

He added the public deserves to know what went on during the executive sessions of the board and how the decision to terminate TakeCare’s contract was determined.

“I am very troubled by the GMH board decision because the act of terminating TakeCare, which paid 70 percent of its bills and converting it to 30,000 self-pay customers who average paying only 45 percent of the bill, is working against the best interest of the hospital for the interest of somebody else. The public deserves to know which board members advocated for and voted to terminate the contract and their specific reasons for cancellation,” he said.

With this in mind, Pangelinan is calling for the governor to direct the board to release the minutes of all GMH board executive session meetings that discussed and decided on the GMH termination.

“The minutes should be released with no redactions whatsoever as to the discussions related to the cancellation of TakeCare's direct payer agreement,” he said.

“Lastly, GMH should release how much money the taxpayers, including TakeCare members, spent on attorneys' legal fees related to the TakeCare debacle, which included appeals to the Supreme Court to keep the records secret,” the senator added.