Good news for non-residents in the territory who are seeking medical treatment at the LBJ hospital, as their fees have been decreased from $695 per day to $200 per day when they are admitted to the hospital, says Acting Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the LBJ Hospital Board, Mase Akapo. The announcement was made on Wednesday during a hearing before the Senate health committee.

However, the hospital has come up with a way to try and reduce the outstanding bills at the hospital, which now stand at $6 million, said Mase.

The Hospital’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Pauline Gebauer told the Senators the hospital is in its final stages working with the American Samoa Government and Starkist Samoa Inc, to put in place payroll deduction for those employed at the canneries and ASG who have outstanding bills at the hospital, in order to have a small amount deducted from their paychecks.  She pointed out this a plan the hospital has come up with to collect on these long overdue bills.

Ms Gebauer explained to the Senators that once this agreement is settled, then some of the old bills will be cleared, because they’ve been in the system for a very long time. Senator Magalei Logovi’i pointed out that the hospital should go after the sponsors of foreigners.

He told the hospital board that they should work with the Immigration office to go after the sponsors who are legally bound to be responsible for the people they bring in.

Senator Soliai Tuipine Fuimaono brought up a different issue during the hearing, when he pointed out to the board that he was at the Intensive Care Unit with the governor last week where they heard first hand from the nurses that the “on call” doctors are very difficult to track down.

The Senator said the nurses told Lolo and him that even if the doctors do come to the ICU, they look at the patient’s charts and then disappear — but they do not physically review the condition of the patient. “Have a heart, and please look into this situation with the ICU. We believe that this certain division of the hospital is 100% fully equipped and if this is what’s happening then it’s fair to say that some people have passed away because there is no physician present at the ICU,” said Soliai. 

The Chairman attempted to soothe the spirits of the Senators about what happened and assured them that the board will look into this so it will not be repeated. Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Iotamo Saleapaga pointed out that there should be a report on the incident because this was news to him, and he was not aware of any such incident.