Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — In a press release issued late last week, American Samoa Medicaid State Agency director, Sandra King Young announced that the local Medicaid office is resuming immediately the non-emergency patient referrals to New Zealand.

 “Now that NZ and Samoa have reopened borders and flights are available, NZ is ready to start accepting non-emergency patient referrals from American Samoa. We anticipate that most of our referrals will be sent to NZ because of the local match limitation and more importantly, we are finding it very difficult to secure specialist appointments in the State of Hawaii,”  King Young said.

All new referrals will continue to go through a pre-screening process plus enrollment. The procedures for off-island referral remain the same as pre-COVID times. Patients must first be approved by the LBJ OMR Committee. Second, Medicaid must approve the patient for eligibility and service coverage. Third, the referral MUST be accepted by the receiving provider in NZ. Without this acceptance, the patient will be denied and the referral returned to the LBJ hospital. Final approval is issued by the Medicaid director based on the availability of the local match.

Before the borders were closed in March 2020 due to COVID, Medicaid received 625 patient referrals from LBJ between 2017 through 2020. Including MedEvac referrals through 2022, Medicaid has provided coverage for 525 patient referrals to NZ. Others were denied either by NZ or Medicaid due to ineligibility. This 4-step approval process ensures equal access and fairness to all eligible patients needing medical treatment off-island.

There will be some new procedures required by the New Zealand government for entry into NZ, including application of NZETA, medical visas and the completion of the NZ government’s Travel Declaration — all must be done online. In addition, all patients must make a REFUNDABLE $300 security accommodations deposit collected by the Medicaid office prior to travel.

For more information, please call 699-4777.