THE administration of former President Rodrigo Duterte approved the triple increase in the 2022 salaries of officials of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) while the country was grappling with the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, lawmakers were told yesterday.
“Our salary was increased based on an executive order,” PhilHealth spokesperson Israel Francis Pargas told the House budget hearing on the Department of Health’s (DOH) proposed budget for 2024, referring to Executive Order No. 150 which was issued October 2021.
The 2021 EO approved the compensation and position classification system framework developed by the Governance Commission for Government-owned and Controlled Corporations (GCG).
Pargas said PhilHealth sought the salary increase from GCG, which approved the certification process.
Pargas made the revelation on the questioning of Rep. Ray Reyes (PL, Anakalusugan) who cited a Commission on Audit’s (COA) annual audit report released last month which said that PhilHealth’s key management personnel were given P71.45 million in 2022 salaries from P26.2 million in 2021.
“You guys had the guts to actually, during the middle of a pandemic, (to) triple your salaries?” Reyes said but Pargas reasoned that the application for salary increase was approved by the Palace.
The issue was discussed even as Health Secretary Ted Herbosa said the government has yet to fund some P1.6 billion worth of COVID-19 emergency allowance for health workers until now.
On the questioning of Rep. Marissa Magsino (PL, OFW), the DOH chief said a request was already made with the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) last April for the release of the COVID-19 emergency allowance since the funding requirement is P63 billion: P22 billion for 2022, P19.4 billion for 2023, and P20 billion for 2024.
Herbosa said the DOH is eyeing to source some of the money from the department’s unprogrammed funds this year but would still need the DBM’s approval.
He noted that around 93 percent of government health workers have already received their allowances and those who work in private hospitals compose the bulk of health workers who are still unpaid.
PhilHeath president and chief executive officer Emmanuel Ledesma said PhilHealth owes different hospitals some P27 billion in dues, which he promised to pay in the next 90 days.
“We will complete payment, hopefully, in high percentage, within 90 days of the P27 billion.
This is on record. Within 90 days, we will try to pay a very high percentage of the P27 billion,” Ledesma told Rep. Wilbert Lee (PL, Agri) who reminded PhilHealth to perform its mandate to provide reliable health insurance coverage to the public by paying hospital claims on time.
“Given that we have P466 billion worth of investible funds in PhilHealth, and the agency has P68.4 billion net income, how come many say that the payment of claims to hospitals is delayed? What’s the PhilHealth’s mandate? Is it to be a health insurance provider or a state investment company?” Lee said.
Lee said many indigent patients get rejected by hospitals because of the huge debt of PhilHealth and even the salaries of health professionals get delayed because of it.
Ledesma admitted that PhilHealth has a large amount of investible funds which he said should be rectified.
“Based on our discussion, I am confident that within 90 days from today, the bulk or the majority of the P27 billion will be paid off,” Ledesma reiterated.
Ledesma shared that they are preparing to use the Debit Credit Payment Method (DCPM) formula in accelerating their payment to hospitals.
Ledesma also admitted that PhilHealth benefit packages have not been updated for the past 10 years.
Lee said that he expects no less than the speedy fulfillment of PhilHealth’s commitment to hospitals, and that he will monitor the expansion of the agency’s healthcare package offered to our countrymen.
Despite the decreased budgets of public hospitals under the proposed 2024 budget, PhilHealth’s proposed budget was increased to P101.5 billion from P100.2 billion this year.
The DOH’s proposed budget is around P311 billion which is three percent lower than this year’s budget.
Because of this, the budget of specialty hospitals also suffered cuts: National Kidney and Transplant Institute, P1.2 billion from P1.7 billion; Lung Center of the Philippines, P561 million from P835 million; Philippine Heart Center, P1.8 billion from P2.1 billion; and Philippine Children’s Medical Center, P1.4 billion from P2.1 billion.
