THE Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) yesterday said the agency is finalizing guidelines for the benefits package for 10 rare diseases and is targeting to release it this month.
On Monday, PhilHealth announced the creation of new benefit packages, including those for 10 rare diseases.
The 10 are maple syrup urine disease, methylmalonic acidemia, propionic acidemia, galactosemia, phenylketonuria, Gaucher Disease, Pompe Disease, Fabry Disease, Hunter Syndrome, Morquio Syndrome, and osteogenesis Imperfecta.
“Hopefully, we can come out with it (guidelines) this December so that we can immediately implement it before the year ends,” said Pargas.
The World Health Organization defines a rare disease as an often-debilitating disease or condition with a prevalence of 0.65 percent to 1 percent.
According to Pargas, there are about 400 identified types of rare diseases.
The 10 rare diseases included in the benefit package, he explained, “are those with identified cases here in the country, and are in need of these benefit packages.”
Data on the total number of rare disease patients in the Philippines is not yet available, said Pargas.
