by Jolene Toves

Guam - It was back to the Guam Legislature for management of the Guam Memorial Hospital, as talks continued today in Hagatna focusing in getting the agency back on solid financial footing. Money - more specifically, where the island's only public hospital stands financially - was the topic of this morning's discussion during GMH's presentation to senators.

GMH has been battling financial ailments for quite some time. Administrator Joseph Verga and his wingman, chief financial officer Allan Ulrich, have instituted their "Aces Plus Q's" initiative in an attempt alleviate the financial pains. "We spent an hour going over the current state of finances progress we've made to improve business practices at the hospital, and then some challenges we've recently encountered with the computerization program, which is going to take us a step back," Verga stated.

Funding shortfalls and problems with parking, where also some of the topics brought to the table. "You will see a reduction in debt because of the Compact impact funds, you will also a positive bottom-line positive flow. A positive cash flow this month, but that's probably more of a blip on the screen related to some revenues that were anticipated," he added.

The revenues Verga speaks about are revenues received from GovGuam agencies and says GMH is still owed a significant amount by Guam's public sector. Verga says GMH is making a real effort to collect money owed to the hospital and has RFP collections. "We've recently started a billing improvement initiative with Public Health to try to move those bills along, so really the billing and collections piece is a complex issue, but we are moving along in the right direction," he stated.

Verga says he will be discussing with the hospital board the option of offering a limited time incentive to patients who owe GMH. The incentive would give the patient an opportunity to pay a reduced amount of their bill in one payment, thus clearing their debt.

GMH is also in the process of looking at other expense reductions, compensation models and alternate models that will move the hospital forward.

Meanwhile, Verga gave an update on the parking situation, saying, "By May we are planning to go from 483 parking spaces to 548 parking spaces, and by August we intend to increase that to 578."

That is an additional 90 parking stalls on the grounds of GMH. The management of the parking lot will include paid parking to generate revenue for additional improvements to the surrounding area and for the long term goal to construct a permanent parking structure.