GMH under budget...but still short

by Janjeera Hail

Guam - The Guam Memorial Hospital's board of directors met last night to discuss, among other things, the current state of its finances. Chief financial officer Jane Flores gave a presentation explaining that even though the agency has been operating under budget, the hospital has been hit especially hard this year because of a law enacted in April 2009 that allowed GovGuam to pay for the care of MIP and Medicaid patients out of the Pharmaceutical Fund, money which had previously been a subsidy to give GMH extra cash for meds and supplies.

Said Flores, "That essentially limited the number of funding sources to the hospital previously to from three down to one, which is essentially is just the Pharmaceutical Fund."  

Flores says that while billings have remained the same, Public Law 29-132 shrunk collections by about $10 million.  Fortunately, the new budget law that just took effect reverses it for the most part.