The Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) is open to the idea of including saliva testing under its COVID-19 testing coverage.
A saliva test conducted by the Philippine Red Cross (PRC) costs around ₱2,000. This is more affordable than an RT-PCR test which is priced around ₱4,000.
Testing Czar Vince Dizon earlier said in the launching of the saliva test by the PRC that he will write to PhilHealth to cover saliva test aside from the RT-PCR test of its beneficiaries.
“It’s a welcome for us, itong (this) saliva [test] because it’s less intrusive. And all our recommendation, even pricing, will be tossed to the meeting we will be having tomorrow with the board of directors,” PhilHealth President Dante Gierran stated.
However, PRC Chairperson and Senator Richard Gordon asked the state insurer to pay in full its balances on RT-PCR testing amounting to ₱600 million.
Gierran admitted the delays in its payment to PRC and to other healthcare service providers, explaining that some applications have deficiencies and that there are shortcomings in terms of information technology (IT).
But he assured that, “utang ‘yan ng gobyerno, utang ‘yan dahil sinisiguro natin ‘yung health benefits ng ating mga kababayan. So hindi pwedeng hindi bayaran ng gobyerno ‘yan (it is the debt of the government because we are ensuring the health benefits of our countrymen. So that is why we cannot halt payment)”.
Meanwhile, Gierran clarified that the ₱15 billion interim reimbursement mechanism (IRM) of the corporation was not squandered, saying that 92 percent of the amount has been liquidated. – Report from Naomi Tiburcio
