| One of the difficulties facing the Health Authority of Anguilla is the growing debt owed to the organisation, by members of the public, for health care services. In order to recover some of the outstanding money, a current amnesty period, up to December 31, has been granted to debtors, and a 10% discount is being offered to all who can make full payment by that date. |
The revelation was made by Acting Chief Executive Officer, Ralph Hodge, whose substantive appointment is Chief Financial Officer. He made the statement in a press interview following last week’s review of the operations of the health services. Mr. Hodge said the Health Authority was already in a financial squeeze resulting from the Government’s reduction of 4.2 million dollars a year, or about $350,000 per month, from its previous annual subsidy of 21 million dollars. He explained that the decrease, due to the general economic climate, had led the Health Authority to be more innovative in handling its revenue. “Basically, our revenue base comes from two sources: the Government’s subvention and the revenue that we raise,” he went on. “When you look at the situation regarding outstanding sums owed to the Health Authority, over the period of its establishment, the sums are alarming. They are somewhere in the region of about 5 – 6 million dollars owed to the Health Authority over that period. Needless to say that one of the major areas is dialysis. This is some two million dollars of that debt. “When you consider the rates for dialysis, even though the rates approved by the Ministry of Health are very lenient, you will find that very few people in our society can realistically keep up with the required fees for dialysis. As a matter of fact, we had two patients from Nevis whom we granted Anguilla rates and the sum outstanding by them over the years is just over three-quarter million dollars. “When we look at our financial situation, we want to cooperate very closely with the Government of Anguilla in terms of meeting our revenue and expenditure targets. We are saying we have some money on the streets and we want to go after it; but we do not know how successful we would be because, if you look at the situation at the moment, we are in very tough economic times. “We can see, based on the outstanding figures – say for last year – that people are hurting and in some areas they are finding it very difficult to pay their bills. The question that has to be asked is: if a patient does not have the wherewithal to pay the fees, could you simply deny that person medical treatment? It is here where the Government really comes in. While the Health Authority is a commercial venture, there is some relationship with the public. That is because the Health Authority’s facilities are the only public and 24-hour-day facilities on Anguilla, and we are responsible for looking at the health of the Anguillian public. So we are going to have to mix the commercial side with the other side of life. “We have decided that, and there is, an amnesty period between now and December 31st. If you come to the Health Authority to pay off your outstanding debt, we are prepared to negotiate with you a 10% discount on any such payment. We sincerely hope that this will be an incentive for people to pay.” Mr. Hodge observed that many people fussed about the bills of the Health Authority. He pointed out, however, that they must realise that the only way the health services could function would be if the revenue was available to meet the organisation’s expenses. “One thing I can assure the public is that we will do everything possible to keep our expenditure as low as possible,” he stressed. “We are looking at our staff to ensure that we get the maximum out of them. We are doing everything we think should be done on a commercial basis, in these very difficult economic times, to ensure that the Health Authority does not escalate its expenditure. This is because, at the end of the day, I want to say to the public that if we do not take care of our health services, we are actually saying we are going to have a dying society.” Mr. Hodge warned that although life on the island was difficult, in order for the Health Authority to be able to continue its services, it might have to resort to court action after the amnesty period to recover some of the debt owing. “Come January, we are prepared to go court with people who owe the Health Authority and ask the court to make a decision with regard to us recovering the outstanding sums,” he said. The top Health Authority official disclosed that some of the challenges facing the organisation included persons carrying a number of different names; providing wrong addresses and telephone numbers; seeking medical attention only in the middle of the night when no cashiers were present; and failing to pay later after receiving service. He noted that, in contrast, persons seeking medical attention outside the island were required to pay upfront, and it was difficult to understand their reluctance to do the same at the Health Authority in Anguilla. “We need the public to cooperate with the health services,” Mr. Hodge added. “The Government is subsidising the health services by some 65-70% … and we are talking [complaining] about the fees that are charged. If Government would not be subsidising, we would have been talking about fees 4 – 5 times as high as they are at the moment. But the health of an island is actually the responsibility of the Government, and I think there has to be a meaningful dialogue and oversight of the Ministry of Health with regard to the activities of the Health Authority to ensure that the public is getting the best available deal.” He emphasised that if the Health Authority were to prosper, and provide certain services, members of the public must carry out their responsibilities to pay for the health care they were being given. |
