During Wednesdays Council of Ministers press briefing Minister of Public Health, Social Development, and Labor Emil Lee said that the Hospital is now empowered to collect the ambulance fees on behalf of government.
With the recent investments in equipment for the Ambulance Department, Minister Lee made it clear that investments come at a cost, and need to be paid back. In this regard, the Ministry is looking at how it can improve the revenues that the ambulance department collects.
Minster Lee said that over the years, the revenue collection from the ambulance department has been very low. The Minister said that from experience, the process of collecting ambulance fees can take many months.
To solve this, a cooperation agreement has been made between the hospital , the Ministry of VSA, the receivers office, and the ambulance Department for the hospital to collect the fees for the Ambulance Department.
Minister Lee said that the hospital will receive a 10 % commission in exchange for their service. “This also helps to support the revenues of SMMC, and also helps government to increase its revenue” said Minister Lee.
“Starting as of May, projected through December 2016, a three-fold increase is projected in the revenues to be collected for Ambulance service. In 2015, NAF 72,189, was collected for the year, and in 2016 over NAf 200,000 is projected to be the revenues. For 2017 in combination with the digitalization of the run sheets, we are expecting even greater revenues” said the Minister.
The current fees that are charged by the ambulance for services is Nafl 275-, for emergencies and Nafl 138-, for non-emergencies. This is quite low for ambulance services. A good comparison is Curacao which charges Nafl 915 for emergencies, and Nafl 458 for non –emergencies. This clearly shows a need to adjust our tariffs.
The Minster thanked members of his ministry Selby Philips, Cylred Richardson, and Roxanne Howell. He also thanked Minerva Gumbs and staff from the receivers office and Davina Cabiere from SMMC for working diligently on this agreement.