Betty Terlaje
THE Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. is willing to discuss a new payment arrangement with the Commonwealth Utilities Corporation, CUC’s new chief financial officer, Betty Terlaje, said.
However, she added, CHCC “has some demands that by statute we are unable to meet and might not necessarily be in the best interest of CUC.”
“CHCC does not agree with paying the government rates,” she said. But for CUC, “the [lower] commercial rates might not be the reflection of what their actual cost is.”
She said a rate study will define what the actual cost is, and only then can CUC management “justify the rates.”
This, she added, “will make sure people are billed more fairly than what the government is being billed right now.”
CHCC “is asking us to reduce the rates,” she reiterated. “They have been asking for that, but that is something we cannot just do because we have to justify that and go through the Commonwealth Public Utilities Commission to issue new rates. What we want to do is do a rate study so it’s properly done and not just based on what they think they should pay,” Terlaje added.
Under last year’s memorandum of understanding, CHCC agreed to pay CUC $525,000 a month. The MOU expired in May 2024.
