Health

JFL Owed Debt of Over $8.3 Million From Various Government Arms as Hospital Braces for $21 Million FY2021 Budget Deficit

At a Committee on Finance meeting on Tuesday, Senator Donna Frett-Gregory addressed serious collection issues from interagency debt and patient billing as JFL staff presented testimony toward the hospital's fiscal year 2021 budget. An accumulative debt of over $8.3 million is owed from various government agencies that received services from JFL. The V.I. Department of Labor’s (VIDOL) Workman's Compensation debt of more than $4.1 million accounted for 50 percent of the total interagency arrears, with the Bureau of Corrections (BOC) in second at over $2.1 million. “I know a lot of times because they think it’s government to government, they think that the debt should not be paid,” said Ms. Gregory. According to figures given from testimony, the government only paid $275,000 to JFL within a year. Ms. Gregory also noted that the finance committee continues to observe a trend of other agencies not including their outstanding financial obligations when they come before the senate requesti...