ILOILO City – “Find ways to settle accountabilities.” It was Mayor Jerry Treñas’ nth call to the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) to fulfill its financial obligations with private hospitals here.
Seven private hospitals informed him they would sever ties with PhilHealth beginning Jan. 1 next year.
“Nag-file na ako gani complaint sa Anti-Red Tape Authority kag sa Ombudsman (against several PhilHealth officials) galing asta subong dako pa gihapon ang balayran,” said who tried to “mediate” between PhilHeath and the hospitals “but to no avail.”
PhilHealth owed St. Paul’s Hospital of Iloilo, Iloilo Doctors Hospital, Iloilo Mission Hospital, The Medical City Iloilo, Medicus Medical Center, Qualimed Hospital Iloilo, and Metro Iloilo Hospital and Medical Center Inc. around P545 million (as of Aug. 31, 2021).
Their non-renewal of accreditation with PhilHealth means the hospitals would no longer deduct PhilHealth benefits from patients’ bills or process their claims.
According to the hospitals, they will provide patients with statements of account they could use to process their PhilHealth reimbursements.
“(T)he PHIC cannot comply with its obligations. We can see that we will be facing the same scenario in the future as what we had experienced prior, if PHIC will not comply with its legal obligations to us under Republic Act 7875, as amended (The National Health Insurance Act),” the hospitals explained.
Upon their demand (that payment should be done by Oct. 31, 2021), a reconciliation process aimed to pay the accounts receivables was initiated by PhilHealth on Oct. 8, 2021. However, it only resulted to 15 to 20 percent payment of the total accounts receivables ending Aug. 31, 2021, and another set of accounts receivables piled up from September to November 2021.
“We are greatly saddened by this action (non-renewal of PhilHealth accreditation). However, we are left with no other choice but to ensure the survival of our hospitals so that we can uphold our commitment to offer necessary and quality healthcare to our patients,” the hospitals stressed.
They appealed for the public’s understanding and sought Treñas’ help “in making the people of the City of Iloilo understand our predicament.”
The hospitals also clarified that despite not renewing their PhilHealth accreditation, they will continue to remit the PHIC contributions of their employees./PN
