The Schneider Regional Medical Center in St. Thomas. Photo Credit: ERNICE GILBERT, V.I. CONSORTIUM.
On July 1, Puerto Rico Hospital Supply Inc. filed a civil complaint against the V.I. Government Hospital and Health Facilities Corporation, alleging breach of a sales agreement dating back to February 2016.
Things seemed to be going well under the contract until September 2024, when Schneider Regional “failed or refused to pay for the items supplied, despite demand,” according to the lawsuit.
The vendor claims to have made a final demand for payment on May 9, 2025, but officials failed to respond, prompting the lawsuit.
The complaint alleges that Schneider Regional owes at least $317,632.46, plus interest.
The lawsuit comes months after lawmakers approved $13 million in emergency funding for the territory's public hospital. Schneider received half of that allocation, $6.5 million. The entirety of that sum was earmarked by the legislature for the payment of vendors, however it is unclear how much of these funds Schneider Regional has received or expended thus far.
After signing the legislation earmarking the funds into law, Governor Albert Bryan Jr. noted that the emergency funding only “solves symptoms of the problems” faced by the territory's public healthcare institutions. “As a community, we're going to have to make a decision to fund our hospitals at the right level,” the governor said in late April.
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