By Alec Go
President Rodrigo Roa Duterte on Thursday ordered the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) to fast track the settlement of its obligations to hospitals, including payments on valid claims.
The announcement made by Malacaῆang followed the recent acknowledgment of PhilHealth President Dante Gierran that they have been slow in processing claims.
On March 31, Gierran admitted in the Laging Handa Public Briefing that their services have been affected by the pandemic which resulted in the reduction of workforce.
“In 2020, umabot ng ₱107 billion ang claim ng hospitals sa amin, Ang nabayaran doon, something like 85% [Hospital claims reached ₱107 billion in 2020 but something like 85% percent was paid],” Gierran said.
According to Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque, PhilHealth has in turn “approved the application of a Debit-Credit Payment Method (DCPM)” in facilitating the settlement of accounts payable to healthcare facilities during the current public health emergency.
Health facilities eligible for DPCM must be located in the National Capital Region (NCR), Batangas, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, Pampanga and Rizal or those identified by the National Task Force Against COVID-19 and Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID).
Such facilities should also have no Interim Reimbursement Mechanism Fund balance on record.
“They must be attending to COVID-19 patients or providing the SARS-COV-2 testing package and their accreditation is not suspended during the applicable period,” Sec Roque pointed out.
“Through this measure, we are confident there would be continuous delivery of healthcare services, especially in identified areas of concern, amid the rising number of Coronavirus active cases,” he concluded.
