Judge to rule on January 18 in
hospital’s case against minister
PHILIPSBURG--In an effort to put an end to the long-standing dispute over how much the Social Insurance Bank SVB owes St. Maarten Medical Center (SMMC) for treating its clients for the years 2004 and 2005, SMMC took Health Minister Omayra Leeflang to court on Wednesday.
The hospital filed the court case on March 9. SMMC General Director Dr. George Scot, assisted by attorney-at-law Jeroen Veen, contended during Wednesday’s court hearing that it was imperative that the budget agreement for the years 2004 and 2005 be settled once and for all.
Budget amounts for these two years have been a point of contention for quite some time.
After listening to arguments on behalf of the two parties yesterday, the judge announced that he will present his ruling on January 29, 2008. He also announced that he would not be setting a budget for SMMC, but would decide on the question of whether Minister Leeflang should set a budget for 2004 and 2005.
While SVB and former health ministers have contended that the books are closed for these years (2004 and 2005), the hospital has maintained its position that they are not. SMMC has only agreed to budget amounts for 2006 and 2007 under the condition that certain Government- and SVB-related issues, such as payments to SMMC from the governments of Saba, Statia and Curaçao, and the budget arrangement for the years 2004 and 2005 be addressed.
Based on calculations, SMMC contends that SVB owed it NAf. 15.9 million for treating SVB clients for the years 2004 and 2005. SVB has already paid NAf. 11.4 million of this amount and still owes SMMC NAf. 4.6 million – the amount SMMC is pursuing in court.
The hospital needs this money to pay off outstanding debts to SVB consisting of NAf. 3.3 million in outstanding premiums. If it wins this court case it would like a barter system with SVB to trade off these debts.
SMMC has taken the Minister to court because SVB and the Minister say the amounts for 2004 and 2005 were paid according to a budget agreement. However, the hospital says it never had budget agreements for these years.
“It is bizarre that the Minister refuses to pay for the cost of health care,” Veen said.
Government lawyer Richard Pols recommended that the judge dismiss the hospital’s claim. He stated that SMMC itself had stopped the budget agreement of payment of NAf. 5.7 million per year, which was paid until 2003. He said government was not obligated to set a budget. Payment should be based on payment for medical care that has actually been delivered, he said.
“The medical centre wants government to take care of its debts with SVB, but the medical centre should be taking care of that itself,” Pols said.
Government is stating that SMMC could not present its bookkeeping according to the rules. “Only in 2005 did it present an accountant’s report for the very first time. The question is how the hospital’s finances were in previous years,” the government lawyer said.
He further stated that only 40 per cent of the hospital beds had been occupied, whereas at least 65 per cent would have been needed for a cost-efficient operation. This led government to the conclusion that SMMC’s management was “inefficient” and “strategically flawed.”
The parties will have to await the judge’s ruling on January 29.
