A TOP Palace official asked the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) to consider a fresh loan from the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) if only to ensure that the state insurer gets to pay bills corresponding to hospital reimbursements amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a press briefing, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque went as far as saying that further delay in paying up PhilHealth’s obligation is unacceptable.
“Talagang hindi katanggap-tanggap na natatagalan ang reimbursement. Although nagbayad ng [numerical amount inaudible] billion recently ang PhilHealth, apparently hindi ito sapat or baka hindi na talaga narelease,” Roque said.
“Maybe it is time for PhilHealth to look into DBP’s suggestion that it will [pay in] advance [the] hospitals’ receivables subject to submission of documents. They just have to agree which documents are needed to be submitted,” he added.
Earlier, private hospitals made a public appeal for PhilHealth to speed up its reimbursement amid the pandemic, given that private hospitals need all the resources they can get to take care of COVID-19 patients.
Interestingly, Roque admitted that what he had just said is purely his personal input, adding that he has not yet discussed the matter with President Rodrigo Duterte.
“Importante na ang mga pangangailangan ng private hospitals ay ma-release ng PhilHealth…ang buong scheme ng universal healthcare, government talaga ang single purchaser of goods, services,” he said.