DOA wants rebates distributed quickly
It was on Friday we told you how the Department of Administration is holding the $8.2 million rebate from Calvo's SelectCare.
By KUAM NewsGuam - It was on Friday we told you how the Department of Administration is holding the $8.2 million rebate from Calvo's SelectCare. While it's unsure when exactly those rebates will be distributed to an estimated 10,000 subscribers, it's a task DOA director Benita Manglona says they're hoping to resolve quickly.
About a quarter of the total rebates from Calvo's SelectCare will be distributed to Government of Guam employees. "I don't have the total number, but we will be distributing about $2.2 million to all the employees who subscribe to the plan, and it all depends on how much premium we've paid," she said.
According to Manglona, she says DOA is working expeditiously to reconcile the individual subscribers' records with the records of select care to finalize and process the rebates to the individual employees that qualify. "We're still waiting to get information from about five different agencies that have not given us their data," she said. "We don't have the details of how much each employee has paid for all the other autonomous agencies. As soon as we receive that information, we're going to reconcile it with the records from SelectCare."
While she wouldn't disclose what five agencies they're waiting on, DOA has made an appeal to those respective agencies to get a move on the matter. She does add there's an estimated 10,000 employees under the plan but will need information on the entire employee premiums in order to allocate proportionally to how much each employee has paid. She does know that the remaining $6 million from the rebates will stay with GovGuam.
However, what about legislation that was passed requiring the $8 million to go to pay tax refunds and retiree health premiums? She says there's not going to be enough adding lawmakers may have over appropriated. "There's not going to be enough money because if you do the math, $7.4 was appropriated and then with the $8.2 million that we receive we subtract the $2.2 million, so the $6 million less the $7.4 you're short about $1.4 million," she explained.
She does however assure GovGuam employees that they should be getting those rebates soon as DOA has 90 days from August 1 to release the money. "But we hope its not going to take the 90 days - we are working as fast as we can and as soon as we receive all the information from the different agencies it will make our work easier," she said.
And while the money was received since July 27, DOA has opened a separate bank account meaning the money is sequestered and it won't be touched for any other reason.