by Krystal Paco

GUAM - It's a 50-percent discount for uninsured self-pay patients, but its set to end June 24th.

According to GMH Chief Financial Officer Alan Ulrich, a recorded $239-thousand was collected at the end of may through the amnesty program, which launched in April. Ulrich advises you pay up or come into the hospital to at least set up a payment arrangement because starting Monday, GMH will begin partnering with collections agencies.

"Really what we want is to encourage people to pay their obligation to the hospital as I've shared with you previously and I've shared this with the Legislature and with the governor's office, overall GMH has over 100-million dollars due from self paid and uninsured and people who own their patient share" the CFO declared.

While the hospital collects, they're hoping to pay up their outstanding liabilities as well.

"We have a little over 20-million dollars due to vendors and some vendors are more current then others some are a longer period overdue. For instance Perry Point, which is a large provider of services to government healthcare entities, we owe a significant amount of money that goes back several years so it just depends on the vendor. We're trying to make payments if at all possible within 90 days but that doesn't always happen" Ulrich explained.

When GMH fails to pay up, Ulrich says monthly interest is a killer.

"As of right now I'm recording expenses of about 70-thousand dollars in interest. I mentioned Perry Point earlier in the conversation -- just that vendor alone is probably charging 50-thosuand dollars a month and additional amounts to the other vendors so it's a very significant cost to the hospital" Ulrich confessed.

Ultimately, there's high hopes for next fiscal year's request of $144-million which includes $20-million for longstanding obligations to help GMH pay down their deficit.