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Keeping KHMH From Backsliding With Bad Debts
Wed, February 10, 2016

And staying on the topic of KHMH's past financial woes, the hospital was contending with unpaid bills amounting to 9 million dollars. But in his Independence Day speech the Prime Minister announced a debt relief for those unpaid bills at KHMH. Government then paid the hospital a distressed price for those bad debts. But what's to stop that kind of receivables backlog form accumulating again – especially with the moral hazard that government wrote it off once, so the politicians might do it again. Augustine spoke to us about initiatives to discourage the same situation from repeating.

Norman August Jr. - Director of Finance, KHMH

"What we have done in the past had a collecting agency some 3 years ago in an effort for KHMH to collect its money. That did not work out the way we had wanted it to work out. So we internally create our own collection unit that have a softer approach, a more assertive approach in meeting with the patient. If you are taking to an institution in Guatemala or in Merida, the first thing they do is to greet you with sir how are you going to pay for your bill. So we have taken a different approach and encouraging patients to put down something from the time they are admitted to put down their payment from the time they enter the institution."

Augustine tells us that the hospital, on average, collects over $6.5 million dollars in service bills every year.

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