{"id":38965,"date":"2016-05-08T10:25:49","date_gmt":"2016-05-08T10:25:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/viconsortium.com\/?p=38965"},"modified":"2016-05-08T10:25:49","modified_gmt":"2016-05-08T10:25:49","slug":"dept-finance-confirms-hospitals-8-1m-payment-wapa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=38965","title":{"rendered":"Dept. Of Finance Confirms Hospitals\u2019 $8.1m Payment To WAPA"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>ST. THOMAS &#8212; With the recent Senate approval to appropriate $8.1 million to pay down the amount owed to the Virgin Islands Water &amp; Power Authority by the Juan F. Luis Hospital and the Schneider Regional Medical Center, Department of Finance Commissioner Valdamier Collens said D.O.F. was committed to executing the payment expeditiously in the best interest of WAPA and the territories\u2019 hospitals, and did so on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCognizant that additional financial support is required to address the more than $20 million owed, we trust that this payment will assist in preserving the liquidity of both the hospitals and WAPA,&#8221; Mr. Collens said.<\/p>\n<p>Bill No. 31-0347 was requested by Governor Kenneth Mapp and approved by the 31st Legislature to appropriate $8.1 million from a recent legal settlement to pay down the hospitals\u2019 debt to W.A.P.A., contending that the semiautonomous entity was in dire financial straights. And he revealed recently that\u00a0W.A.P.A. requires a financial operating reserve of $10 million to $15 million and 30 days cash on hand, which amounts to $26 million. However, the struggling semiautonomous entity was nowhere close its required reserve.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo that end, this proposed bill requires urgent action by the Legislature to aid VI W.A.PA. so it can have sufficient cash on hand to continuously purchase fuel,\u201d wrote the governor in a transmittal letter to Senate President Neville James <span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><a style=\"color: #3366ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/viconsortium.com\/breaking-news\/with-w-a-p-a-in-deep-financial-trouble-mapp-sends-bill-to-senate-that-pays-down-hospitals-power-debt-by-8-million\/\" target=\"_blank\">last month<\/a><\/span>, requesting that the Legislature take immediate action. \u201cThis infusion will translate into the VI Water and Power Authority being able to ensure stable and dependable power to the people of the Virgin Islands.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The governor had acknowledged that his proposal was not a wholesale fix of all the hospitals\u2019 problems, but \u201cit is one of several steps I will be proposing to the Senate this year,\u201d he said. \u201cFor the record, additional cash infusion to aid our hospitals is needed, and I will submit a plan for such aid in the near future.\u201d Mr. Mapp stressed that the financial aid being offered now to the hospitals should not be cause for the facilities to become comfortable.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want to underscore that this aid does not relieve hospitals\u2019 management teams from taking the necessary actions to achieve sound financial policies and better business practices,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ST. THOMAS &#8212; With the recent Senate approval to appropriate $8.1 million to pay down the amount owed to the Virgin Islands Water &amp; Power Authority by the Juan F. Luis Hospital and the Schneider Regional Medical Center, Department of Finance Commissioner Valdamier Collens said D.O.F. was committed to executing the payment expeditiously in the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":20730,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,11,2474,147],"tags":[5027,5026,1008,83],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Dept. Of Finance Confirms Hospitals\u2019 $8.1m Payment To WAPA - V.I. Consortium<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Find Virgin Islands new, opinion, politics, lifestyle, business and more\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=38965\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Staff\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=38965\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=38965\",\"name\":\"Dept. Of Finance Confirms Hospitals\u2019 $8.1m Payment To WAPA - V.I. Consortium\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-05-08T10:25:49+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-05-08T10:25:49+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/#\/schema\/person\/39b3006bfe8aca8c2131c695b7505c09\"},\"description\":\"Find Virgin Islands new, opinion, politics, lifestyle, business and more\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=38965#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=38965\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=38965#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Dept. Of Finance Confirms Hospitals\u2019 $8.1m Payment To WAPA\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/\",\"name\":\"V.I. Consortium\",\"description\":\"Uniting the Caribbean\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/#\/schema\/person\/39b3006bfe8aca8c2131c695b7505c09\",\"name\":\"Staff\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/2.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2f92cdebdd3d534234e61f7a1b9fbfa8?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/2.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2f92cdebdd3d534234e61f7a1b9fbfa8?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Staff\"},\"url\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?author=3\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Dept. Of Finance Confirms Hospitals\u2019 $8.1m Payment To WAPA - V.I. Consortium","description":"Find Virgin Islands new, opinion, politics, lifestyle, business and more","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=38965","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Staff","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=38965","url":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=38965","name":"Dept. Of Finance Confirms Hospitals\u2019 $8.1m Payment To WAPA - V.I. Consortium","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-05-08T10:25:49+00:00","dateModified":"2016-05-08T10:25:49+00:00","author":{"@id":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/#\/schema\/person\/39b3006bfe8aca8c2131c695b7505c09"},"description":"Find Virgin Islands new, opinion, politics, lifestyle, business and more","breadcrumb":{"@id":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=38965#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=38965"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=38965#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Dept. Of Finance Confirms Hospitals\u2019 $8.1m Payment To WAPA"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/#website","url":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/","name":"V.I. Consortium","description":"Uniting the Caribbean","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/#\/schema\/person\/39b3006bfe8aca8c2131c695b7505c09","name":"Staff","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en","@id":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"http:\/\/2.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2f92cdebdd3d534234e61f7a1b9fbfa8?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"http:\/\/2.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2f92cdebdd3d534234e61f7a1b9fbfa8?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Staff"},"url":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?author=3"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38965"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38965\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}