THE Commission on Audit has granted the appeal of the Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC) for permission to write off P9.19 million in unpaid hospital bills incurred by indigent obstetrics patients (new mothers) that have become dormant after more than a decade.
In a decision released only yesterday, the COA Commission Proper reversed the 2020 ruling of the COA-Local Government Sector that denied the request of SPMC officer-in-charge Ricardo Audan to write off the accounts receivable.
SPMC financial management officer Barbara Cezar said the sum is composed of P4.112 million unpaid patients’ bills in 2007 and P6.082 million for 2008. She explained that a write off will help clean up the state-hospital’s financial records as only current collectable accounts would be included in its books.
Hospital management said its officers were never remiss in collecting hospital bills but even their best efforts proved insufficient since the patients involved simply had no capacity to pay the cost of health care.
Short of detaining patients for non-payment of treatment and medical expenses — an illegal under act under RA 9439 — the SPMC said it was left with no choice but to allow the discharge of patients even when they have unsettled bills.
Since the accumulation of the dormant unpaid bills was beyond its control, the SPMC said it would be unfair to force it to maintain the uncollectible accounts on its records.
The COA agreed, noting that the smallest bills only amounted to P100 while the biggest was at P21,930 which made it impractical for SPMC to send demand letters to each of more than 4,000 patients.
“SPMC also exhausted all remedies to collect the receivables. While it was able to collect partial payment from several patients, many who are truly economically incapable, still failed to make payment,” the CO noted.
It added that despite the write off, the P9.19 million still did not go to waste since it represented health services provided to 4,424 Filipino patients who benefitted.
