Medical providers complain about payments
PHILIPSBURG — Doctors and Pharmacists have complained that they are not being paid on time for services rendered to the patients who carry the Social Insurance (SZV) cards. According to them, in some cases they have to wait as long as three months before they are being paid for the previous months. This backlog in the payments is now very frustrating since it has been going on for some time said, the doctors.
However, the Head of Social Insurance, Glen Carty, when contacted indicated that since he has held the helm of the institution the payments to the pharmacists and doctors has never been better. “I have checked with the Finance Department and all of the medical providers payments are all up to date. There is no backlog,” said Carty.
The doctors are contending that the statement made by Carty is a “political one” since this is not the truth.
Meanwhile, on the door of the medical provider Alpha Health Services, there is a sign on the door that indicates “Effective September 1, 2018, no longer accepting SZV. Cash only; due to SZV not paying invoices 2017 and 2018. Yes !!! this is an inconvenience to all. Once bills paid SZV welcome.”
The Managing Director of Alpha Health Services was quoted as saying “We are not accepting cards or prescriptions from SZV due to no payments. We will not continue servicing SZV patients until all the bills are paid in full,” said
She pointed out that it was only in February 2018 that they were paid for 2016 which was over $80,000 and the remainder from then to date is over $120.000. In a meeting with the CFO of the SZV promises were made to pay the outstanding bills but the dates kept slipping by without payments being made. To date there is more than $120.000 outstanding which resulted in them taking the decision to suspend all medical services to the SZV patients.
There was also an apparent change in the billing system, she said which all payments are channeled to Holland. This change created more problems since the staff could not understand how this system worked. She now plans to purchase a building in Arch Road which housed the medical clinic and make it a medical only facility where she would outfit it with all the necessary providers so it will be a one stop facility “where people do not have to run around to have their medical issues solved,” she concluded.
