WITH over 5 million claims, hemodialysis was the top medical procedure paid for by the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) in 2024.
Data provided by PhilHealth showed it paid about P28.1 billion for around 5.2 million claims for hemodialysis.
Expanded newborn care and normal spontaneous delivery were the second and third packages most availed of by members. PhilHealth paid P3.1 billion for 943,773 claims for the newborn package and P7.3 billion (919,378 claims) for normal delivery.
Completing the top five medical procedures are COVID-19 testing with 482,909 claims (P988 million) and chemotherapy administration with 329,193 claims (around P2.8 billion).
PhilHealth said there were also 249,047 claims (P904 million) for the animal bite treatment package, and 240,836 claims (P2.4 billion) for intensity modulated treatment delivery, single or multiple fields/arcs, via narrow spatially and temporally modulated beams, binary, dynamic MLC.
Cataract removal and outpatient HIV/AIDS packages had 224,209 claims (P3.6 billion) and 214,765 (P1.9 billion), respectively.
In the 10th spot was caesarian section delivery with 139,380 claims that cost some P3.3 billion.
Earlier, the Department of Health assured the public that PhilHealth has the financial capacity to pay for the health benefits of all its members, and the agency is capable of increasing the case rates of its benefit packages, despite Congress’ move not to give it government subsidy for this year.
