Hospital collection at $5.065M in first six months

Since the formal takeover of the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. in October last year, only a little over $5 million was generated from the three health centers on Saipan, Tinian, and Rota.

Based on unaudited corporation records obtained by Saipan Tribune, the corporation’s overall collection totaled $5.065 million from October 2011 to March 2012, the bulk of which came from the Commonwealth Health Center at $4.8 million. The Tinian Health Center brought in $162,374.27, while the Rota Health Center collected $102,707.06.

According to Alvaro Santos, chief financial officer, the corporation averaged $844,000 in monthly collections from the three health centers. Based on records, Rota and Tinian averaged only $10,000 each month.

The “low” revenue figures, Santos said, are due to the low rates being charged by the hospital for services. He attributed the months with higher collections to reimbursements received by the corporation from both Medicare and Medicaid.

Corporation chief executive officer Juan N. Babauta and Santos disclosed in Thursday’s news briefing that hospital revenues are seen to significantly grow beginning next fiscal year as a result of the “revenue cycle management” being created by the corporation. This important function, they said, is tied with the scope of work expected to be performed by International Consulting Services. ICS, they said, will fix the broken financial system, updating all hospital charges including supplies.

Babauta revealed that 55 percent of hospital services are not being charged at present while 45 percent of all current services are under-charged. Hospital supplies are not also being given free. It also lacks effective coding services that are vital to generating revenues.

Once a new charge master machine is installed, Babauta said that revenue and collection are expected to go up to $2.8 million a month, hopefully by the start of fiscal year 2013 in October. He emphasized that “this is all tied in with the ICS contract.”

Compared to Guam Marianas Collection Agency, he said that ICS has a greater scope of work and billing and collection services are just part of its multiple tasks. GMCA, he said, will work on “old” debts from way back until March 2011 while ICS—for the same service—will concentrate on billings from April 2011 forward.

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CHC: $4,800,438.82
October 2011: $623,344.15
November 2011: $1,252,216.19
December 2011: $517.745.48
January 2012: $625,944.04
February 2012: $1,081,299.81
March 2012: $699,839.15

TINIAN HEALTH CENTER: $162,374.27
October 2011: $10,269.32
November 2011: $28,370.76
December 2011: $29,128.94
January 2012: $19,567.83
February: $23,516.74
March: $51,520.68

FOR ROTA HEALTH CENTER: $102,707.06
October 2011: $9,928.40
November 2011: $7,801.21
December 2011: $56,216.05
January 2012: $12,385.39
February 2012: $8,204.37
March 2012: $8,171.64