TAKING cue from a statement issued by the Private Hospitals Association of the Philippines (PHAP), President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) to pay hospitals with valid claims if only to ramp up its operations amid the sharp spike of daily cases of the deadly virus from Wuhan, China.
The PHAP earlier hinted at the PhilHealth’s growing debt and the slow processing of reimbursement claims behind their operational scaledown.
“President Rodrigo Duterte directed PhilHealth to expedite the payment of valid claims of hospitals today, 8 April,” said presidential spokesperson Secretary Harry Roque.
PhilHealth President Dante Gierran has earlier admitted delays in the reimbursement process, attributing it to coronavirus infections among the state insurer’s employees, thus reducing workforce and prompting a lockdown of its office.
Gierran earlier said that the state insurer in 2020 received P107 billion in claims for the service of hospitals to its members, and settled about 85 percent of the obligations.
Meanwhile, PhilHealth approved a debit-credit payment scheme worth P9.7 billion to facilitate the settlement of accounts payable to public and private hospitals in Metro Manila, Batangas, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, Pampanga, and Rizal, Roque said.
Health facilities eligible for the payment method should have no interim reimbursement mechanism fund balance on record and should be attending to Covid-19 patients or providing swab test packages, he added.
“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,” Roque said.