by Ken Quintanilla

Guam - They considered it a tedious and difficult process, and starting next week, about $2.1 million in rebate checks should be sent to over 10,000 employees under the Government of Guam's Health Insurance Plan. "We have good news for the GovGuam employees and retirees and families," said Benita Manglona. "We have finished the calculations."

It's calculations that Manglona, the Department of Administration's director, says were needed in order to determine when it would distribute the $2.1 million in rebates received by Calvo's Selectcare on July 27. "DOA and the Department of Revenue & Taxation has determined that the individual cash rebates to the subscribers are based on the percentage of actual contributions that were paid in Calendar Year 2011 to the total premiums paid in Calendar Year 2011 multiplied by the total amount rebated to the Government of Guam," she explained.

DOA will provide the total rebate payment for all subscribers along with the methodology and detailed instructions of how they were calculated. A lump sum check will be issued to the agencies DOA doesn't do payroll for who in turn will cut those checks to employees. Those agencies include the Department of Education, GHURA, GCC, the Guam Housing Corporation, the airport, the Guam Legislature, GMH, GVB, the Port Authority, Public Defender, UOG, Unified Judiciary, GPA, GWA, and the Government of Guam Retirement Fund. "We're hoping to get the autonomous agencies checks out today and we're also going to be cutting the individual rebates for the employees but we want to release the autonomous agencies so that when the rebates checks are out they'll be out at the same time," she said.

So just how much will employees be getting? Manglona says it can range from $5 to $500. "It all depends on how long you were on the plan and what your participation and how much premiums you paid into the plan," she said.

DOA was waiting for information from all the autonomous agencies where it then had to be reconciled with Selectcare's calculations. She has worked diligently with the insurance commissioner to ensure the methodology used was correct and based on federal guidelines. She concluded, "Again, we want to thank you for your patient during this long process, it has a been a very, very difficult process for us."