by Clynt Ridgell, KUAM NewsTuesday, May 13, 2008 Subscribe to Clynt's newsfeed
The Fiscal Year 2009 budget process marches on, as the Legislative Committee on Finance & Taxation held a budget hearing this morning on the Guam Memorial Hospital. The agency is asking for $17.1 million, with $12.1 coming from the Pharmaceutical Fund and the remaining $5 million from Compact-impact funds. Hospital administrator Peter John Camacho testified before the Committee, saying that the amount requested by the Camacho Administration would be sufficient for hospital operations in 2009.This news comes despite the fact that the island's only public hospital is still behind in collections. GMH acting chief financial Jane Flores says that net account receivables has reached $32 million, while gross account receivables has reached $91 million. "You're looking at the contractual allowance for financial classes of MIP, Medicaid and Medicare; they're being reimbursed to the hospital on a per diem basis - the rest is considered contractual allowance. That's something that the hospital has to basically just eat, so if our per diem right now is $979 per day on inpatient basis, so if I bill $5,000 per day, I'm only going to get $979."Flores says that roughly 36% of the gross accounts receivable are from Medicaid, Medicare and MIP patients while nearly half is attributed to self-pay patients.