Hospital CEO dismisses rumor that Dr. Saleapaga’s job is on the line

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — The hospital’s Chief Executive Officer has dismissed reports that the LBJ Board is looking to “remove” Chief Medical Officer, Dr Iotamo Saleapaga.

 “The last time I met with the hospital board we spoke about the need for a performance evaluation for Dr Saleapaga, but nothing [was said] about removing him from his current post.

 “This is all part of review by the Board for the hospital’s management team and should have been done in the middle of his three year contract,” said the LBJ CEO Moefaauo Bill Emmsley in an interview with Samoa News.

He said Dr Saleapaga’s performance review is long overdue and should have been done already — but due to COVID it was postponed until now.

This week the Samoa News received reports about Dr Saleapaga going before the Board — and the meet up is on the agenda of the meeting scheduled today (Wednesday November 2, 2022).

Samoa News reached out to US certified Medical Doctor Saleapaga for comments and he declined noting that he will have to wait for the Board meeting scheduled on Wednesday to find out what his ‘fate’ is. “I heard the same reports and while this is concerning for me, I have to wait for the Board to meet to see what action they take,” he told Samoa News over the phone.

According to the hospital CEO reports about the CMO’s removal are untrue.

 “That’s an extreme position, but in a proper prospective any decision pertaining to Dr Saleapaga is the prerogative of the hospital board and the board should also seek my professional opinion, if that is what they anticipate to do,” he said.

 “As indicated earlier, all we spoke about was the performance evaluation, but removal was never in the picture and I would think this is how the board will approach it, as a performance evaluation.

“I met with the board and we spoke about the need to have a performance evaluation for the CMO during our meeting in September.”

Asked whether there are any existing guidelines when it comes to performance evaluations of managers of the hospital, Moefaauo said it depends on the contractual obligations stipulated in the contract signed with each manager.

 “It depends on one’s contract, but in a standard contract, the evaluation should be done half way through the contract.”

Asked whether the board is conducting performance evaluations for all the hospital management, the CEO said no.

According to Moefaauo, the CMO’s contract is for three years and will come to an end next year November.

“At the moment only Dr Saleapaga’s is up for a performance evaluation.”

On the issue of the alleged shortages of doctors, Moefaauo said it’s not true.

“We are steady in terms of doctors we have up to 70 physicians at the moment and there are 60 nurses, but we need up to 90 nurses.”

At one time Dr Saleapaga’s National Provider Identifier (NPI) was used by the hospital to bill Medicaid on patients seen at LBJ, but at the moment all the 70 doctors working at LBJ are certified Medical Doctors with NPI pins.

 “All the doctors have NPI’s and they charge each of their patients just like Dr Saleapaga.

“This is one of the issues we addressed when I first came on board as CEO; I worked with the Chairman of the Board Dr Malouamaua Tuiolosega to make sure all the physicians have NPI pins.

“The physicians having NPI pins is vital, not only from a regulatory standpoint but also from a billing standing point, they have to have an NPI, otherwise the doctors cannot bill Medicaid and Medicare and if they can’t bill them we don’t get reimbursements,” he said.

Regarding Dr Saleapaga’s NPI, Moefaauo said at one time the hospital relied solely on his NPI pin to in order to bill Medicaid and Medicare, but when the Center for Medicaid Service uncovered this, they put a stop to it.