CARLO Pana is a Christian missionary based in Cebu with his wife, Elma, and only child, Charael. Dedicated and selfless ministers of the Bible, the couple had tirelessly worked on missions in Kenya and South Africa.
While waiting for their turn to be vaccinated, the family tested positive for COVID-19.
Last July 19, when it became clear that the couple was in serious condition, their son, though himself sick, drove them to the University of Cebu Medical Center (UCMed).
He was worried about medical bills in a private hospital, but Charael was desperate and had no other choice. The only option for free medical care, the government’s Sotto Medical Center, was already filled to the brim with COVID-19 patients.
Charael had faith because both his parents were senior citizens and PhilHealth members. He submitted his IDs to UCMed and went to quarantine. He contacted family, friends and churchmates for help. A whole community responded: a support system was set up, a donation drive kicked-off.
But everything did not go right in UCMed. Despite being confirmed COVID-19 critical cases, the elderly couple remained in the emergency room. No rooms were available. Worse, UCMed asked for deposits, claiming that PhilHealth benefits are inapplicable while patients are in the ER.
Remdesivir, the drug prescribed, was expensive, and for two people, terribly out of budget. Defeated, Charael was forced to sign a waiver declining the much-needed medication, absent funds to pay for them.
Elma died at midnight 10 days after her admission while still in the ER.
Carlo was finally admitted to a room. Charael thought UCMed would now honor PhilHealth coverage. But UCMed refused. It instead required additional deposits, promising reimbursement only after discharge. Organizers scrambled for more donations.
Sadly, Carlo’s condition worsened, and he had to be intubated. His case was clearly critical and PhilHealth’s coverage would have been computed at almost P800,000. Still, UCMed refused to apply the computed amount, and instead, required deposits for 100% of all fees and charges. This, despite the more than P600,000 already deposited to Carlo’s account.
Letters filed with UCMed have been ignored. A complaint was filed with PhilHealth Cebu PRO VII, citing the obvious urgency of the life and death matter. As of press time PhilHealth has yet to lift a finger.
The Universal Health Care Act provides for “immediate and outright application” of the PhilHealth benefits. Apparently, UCMed and PhilHealth interpret “immediate coverage” as “reimbursement after discharge.”
Can reimbursement after discharge qualify as immediate application? Reimbursement utterly defeats the spirit and purpose of the law. In this pandemic when all hospitals are on pedal-to-metal throttle, immediate coverage should not be dependent on whether a patient has funds to advance the hospital charges.
The amount deposited is “over and above” those payable by the patient. Why should poor and penniless Carlo be required to advance what is not demandable from him but from PhilHealth, which merrily sits on the sidelines?
So that Carlo may survive, doctors are said to have prescribed an immediate tracheotomy. True to form, as is likely the case in many hospitals in the country, the hospital knee-jerks for additional deposits. But funds are depleting fast. There is nothing left to feed a billing monster.
Carlo is barely surviving, left to his own devices in the face of a merciless hospital policy and an immobilized PhilHealth.
How many hundreds of other faceless Filipinos are now confronted with the same fate of desolation and despair?/PN
