THE Guam Memorial Hospital’s billing is up to date so far, GMH acting CFO Jun Infante reported during the latest GMH board of trustees meeting.
For the month of July, Infante said the hospital’s billing staff reported that some $13 million have been billed out.
On average, the hospital receives about 56 percent in returns compared to the amount billed out.
GMH Administrator Joseph Verga said there are several ways to ensure that what is due to the hospital is collected, such as garnishing of wages and tax returns, or turning to estates or other assets.
With regard to outsourcing the billing, GMH board member Albert Gurusamy expressed the need for the hospital to collect data to find the bottlenecks in billing. He said if the hospital can utilize data that is only now being collected, billing processes can be refined and the hospital can conduct its own billing instead of turning elsewhere.
Vice Speaker Benjamin J.F. Cruz has been urging the hospital to find ways to increase the cash flow. One of the proposals was to transfer billing to a third party. The senator has been pushing the outsourcing of billing since May of this year.
Last week, Cruz introduced a floor amendment to the budget proposal for $125,000 to provide for the 188 new terminals needed for GMH’s software and hardware updates.
