~Pharmacies, physicians and therapists all planning to act. ~
PHILIPSBURG: — Patients that get their medical supplies from Alpha Healthcare will have to pay cash for their supplies even if they are insured by USZV so says Debby Alpha, owner of the healthcare store located in Cay Hill.
Alpha told SMN News that she had to take the decision to not service SZV clients due to the lack of payment by SZV and that her pleas for payment felt on deaf ears.
The businesswoman said that SZV owes her over $120.000.00 that covers 2017 and 2018 bills. She said she met with representatives of SZV on several occasions and the only thing she has been getting is empty promises. “I got 2016 payments in February 2018 and I had to pay months of back rent that I owed, I also had to pay other bills. Due to the lack of payments from SZV Alpha I lost vendors in the USA because I am unable to pay for supplies while I now fly back and forth to the USA to work to pay off some of the bills I incurred for SZV patients.” Besides that, Alpha is unable to secure new vendors due to bad credit.
The lack of payments from SZV also is the cause that Alpha Healthcare cannot secure a loan from banks on St. Maarten simply because the business does not have cashflow.
Alpha further explained that she has been doing business on St. Maarten for the past 8 years, she said the first five years payments were being made on time but all of that changed when SZV decided to implement the electronic billing which she said is done in the Netherlands.
The businesswoman said that patients on St. Maarten are suffering because the Minister of Health is not a healthcare professional, she further questioned the logics behind having Dr. Luc Mercelina in Parliament when he could have served as the Minister of Health. “Here you have a qualified person sitting in Parliament doing nothing while he could have made a real difference if he was the Minister of Health, the electorate elected him that position because that is what he campaigned on.
Alpha said she had intended to purchase the old clinic in Arch Road and turn it into a “One Stop Shopping in Healthcare. “My intention was to have a pharmacy, therapist, physicians because I felt that sick people have to run around to get what they need even though some of them are disabled. All of this I placed on hold because people here just don’t like paying their bills.” “I can easily move to another island because I really do not need St. Maarten I am providing services to five other islands, including Dominica and Anguilla.”
“I had this same problem with the Ambulance department, they were not paying their bills and I had to go over to see the Ombudsman who intervened before I initiated a court case. The Ambulance department paid their outstanding bill and now I do purchase order with them and I still had to freeze their supplies because right now they have 3 outstanding invoices to pay.” Businesses on St. Maarten do not respect purchase orders, its either cash or nothing.
The businesswoman said she is not the only one not being paid by SZV, she said right now there are physicians, therapists, and pharmacies that are not being paid and they are trying to act in the very near future.
Alpha also said that when she met with SZV CFO and other employees she asked them why certain businesses manages to secure exclusive contracts while Alpha has the same products and even better products for less than half of the price the other businesses sells for and up to now she could not obtain a response. She said Oduber Agencies got an exclusive contract for all diabetic products while the White and Yellow Cross has an exclusive contract for diabetic shoes and compressive stockings.
“The people’s money is not well spent because SZV does not conduct proper business, they give exclusive contracts while better products are out there for a lower price. SZV also ships patients to the Dominican Republic and Colombia when they do not have to do that. SZV is paying the tickets, hotels and daily allowances for patients that go there for vacations and other private business. “These same patients could be sent to Puerto Rico for less money but again Puerto Rico had to annul the contract they had with St. Maarten for the lack of payment.”
There are rumors out there that states that the money that was in place to construct the new general hospital was stolen post Irma and now the plan is just to renovate the old hospital and construct on the old building. Alpha said he also heard the Minister of Health also made a large sum of money available to pay physicians because they were about to shut their doors. “I heard that money was taken from the recovery fund, but I have no proof of that.”
Source: St. Martin News Network http://www.smn-news.com/st-maarten-st-martin-news/29983-exclusive-alpha-healthcare-refusing-szv-cards-due-to-lack-of-payment.html
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