ILOILO City – The Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) has yet to pay hospitals here whose unpaid claims to the state insurer further ballooned to P1,355,454,877.65 from P860 million two months ago, according to Mayor Jerry Treñas.
“It is unfortunate…During th(is) most difficult time, our city hospitals (are) vigorously catering to the health needs of both our coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients and other patients,” he lamented.
On July 9, Treñas again wrote Atty. Valerie Anne H. Hollero, regional vice president of PhilHealth.
“We are hoping that this will be resolved immediately so (that the hospitals) can continue to serve both the Ilonggos and those from nearby provinces. I am very thankful for their unnerving aid and we will help them as much as we can,” said Treñas.
The hospitals and their unpaid PhilHealth claims are the following:
* The Medical City Iloilo – P88.052 million as of May 31, 2021
* West Visayas State University Medical Center – P49.998 million as of May 31, 2021
* Metro Iloilo Hospital and Medical Center – P190.756 million as of June 23, 2021
* QualiMed Hospital – P30.393 million as of May 12, 2021
* Iloilo Doctor’s Hospital – P38.265 million as of May 10, 2021
* St. Paul’s Hospital Iloilo – P131.069 million as of July 7, 2021
* Western Visayas Medical Center – P556.984 million as of April 30, 2021
* Iloilo Mission Hospital – P99.645 million as of April 30, 2021, and
The Medicus Medical Center also has unpaid claims with PhilHealth while the city government-run Uswag Molecular Laboratory has P170.289 million in unpaid claims as of July 6, 2021.
Previously, Treñas informed Health secretary and Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) chair Francisco Duque III about this, and so were chief implementer and vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr., Interior secretary Eduardo Año; IATF co-chair Karlo Alexei Nograles; and PhilHealth president and chief executive officer, Atty. Dante Gierran.
In a virtual meeting with medical and hospital directors as well as with Treñas in May, Gierran assured the city government and hospitals here of “solutions”.
Even Ilonggo senator Franklin Drilon, too, pressed for the speedy release of hospitals’ reimbursement claims.
Drilon earlier said “most or almost all” of Region 6’s 33 hospital claims had been filed by April 8, 2020 yet.
“Ang sistema sa loob ng PhilHealth ang dapat baguhin. Ayusin nila (para sa) mabilis na pag-reimburse ng claims,” said Drilon.
The Senate is keen on PhilHealth’s implementation of the Interim Reimbursement Mechanism (IRM) scheme which turned out to be a cash advance program for hospitals and clinics directly hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Lawmakers, however, noted how the IRM was “abused and became a source of politicking and corruption” in the agency.
“‘Yung mga hospitals hirap na, marami silang serbsiyo na nagawa na at humihingi ng reimbursement. Kung aayusin ang sistema at kaagad na maproseso itong mga claims, hindi kailangan itong IRM o cash advances na ginagawa nila,” said Drilon./PN
