by Jolene Toves

Guam - It's been a long time coming, but for the first time ever, Medicare will reimburse the Guam Fire Department for their subscribers' use of GFD's ambulances. According to the Governor's Office, GFD will be receiving a $157,000 reimbursement that will cover billings for nearly half of the fiscal year. Acting Governor Ray Tenorio says the administration is working to bring Guam's standards up to the Medicare standards and possibly and increase collections in order to capture more of the Medicare amounts.

"The more we get for the money for the people who use the services from the federal government, the more our ambulances and our emergency medical services can provide those services, whether it be gauze, sheets or fuel for the vehicles training for the EMTs. All of these can be drawn from more money that comes in," he said.

The reason for the reimbursement is because GFD has successfully implemented its ambulance billing program and was accredited by Medicare. As a result GFD can anticipate about $300,000 annually in revenue in reimbursements.

GFD has never billed or collected on this before.