BEGINNING this year, the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) will cover 156 hemodialysis sessions a year of members suffering from Stage 5 chronic kidney disease (CKD).
The state insurer used to shoulder only 90 sessions.
“This extension to 156 sessions, it won’t be just for this year. This has been institutionalized,” PhilHealth spokesman Rey Baleña said in a briefing.
Asked how the 156 sessions was reached, Baleña pointed to the requirement of hemodialysis patients.
“They normally require three sessions per week, multiply that by 52 weeks, that will be 156 sessions. This means that their requirement per week for the whole year shall be covered by PhilHealth,” said Baleña.
He said the agency was able to expand the benefit for hemodialysis due to additional funding from the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) and Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR).
“Under the Universal Health Care Law, portions of the PAGCOR and PCSO funds will be allocated to PhilHealth for the enhancement of benefits, first of which is the improvement of our hemodialysis coverage,” said Baleña.
With an amount of P2,600 per session, Baleña said PhilHealth shouldered P234,000 for the 90 sessions of each member in the previous years.
With the sessions expanded to 156 per year, PhilHealth members can avail of as much as P405,600 per year.
PhilHealth data showed that last year, it paid P17.3 billion for 3.6 million hemodialysis claims. For the first quarter this year, PhilHealth has paid P4.5 billion for 926,000 hemodialysis claims.
