THE Private Hospitals Association of the Philippines Inc. (PHAPI) yesterday expressed support to the proposed 50 percent coverage for members of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) who are admitted to private hospitals, and said the same benefit should be extended to those in public facilities.
“That is a good proposal by Speaker (Martin) Romualdez because it will increase the benefits of members… If it goes up to 50 percent, it will be better,” said PHAPI president Dr Jose de Grano.
“If it is increased, it shouldn’t be limited to private hospitals. It is better if all hospitals, including the public hospitals, will have bigger benefits,” he also said.
De Grano said he is confident that PhilHealth has the capacity to provide such benefit rates.
“PhilHealth has a big budget allocation from Congress. Also, it has a big income of about billions every year. So you can’t say they have no funds to increase the coverage,” he said.
The PHAPI head, though, expressed reservations in case PhilHealth is unable to pay hospital claims.
“If they don’t pay us, we will need to provide a big advance in benefits to patients. That can be a problem,” said de Grano.
Earlier, Romualdez pushed to increase PhilHealth benefits and cover at least 50 percent of costs in private hospitals.
PhilHealth president and CEO Emmanuel Ledesma Jr. last week told the House that as part of the state insurer’s prime mandate, they would have to increase the benefit packages to make it easier for Filipinos to avail themselves of healthcare services.
“We are one we are one with Speaker Martin when he says we have to aggressively and continuously increase the case packages of PhilHealth across the board,” he told the House Committee on Health.
The Speaker last week said patients are appealing for PhilHealth to shoulder half of medical expenses so that members will pay just the remaining half.
Romualdez has said the top complaint of patients, especially the indigent ones, is that PhilHealth is shouldering only 15 to 20 percent of bills in hospitals and private medical institutions, especially if they are admitted in private wards.
He issued a directive to review PhilHealth’s charter to expand patient’s benefits, including early detection of cancer, and provide a more comprehensive health care coverage for Filipino patients.
