‘House members questioned the retroactive clause of the directive, asking why the circular covers admissions starting Nov. 26, 2020, when the document was issued
only in June 2021.’
THE issue of deficiencies in the handling of government funds to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, which was started by the Commission on Audit’s findings on the Department of Health’s money management, necessarily involves lawmakers.
It is therefore timely for the House of Representatives Committee on Health, headed by Quezon 4th District Rep. Angelina “Helen” Tan to convene a committee hearing to promptly address the concerns because if left to the bare analysis of the “experts” commenting over the Internet, we may never know what the real score is.
It just so happened that the House panel is headed by a physician whose expertise is in public health and that the House under the leadership of Speaker Lord Alan Velasco has its ears close to the ground and can act quickly on national concerns without fanfare. The same cannot be said of the Senate.
Rep. Tan’s probing of officials of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) resulted in the discovery of “apparent mistakes” in circulars on coverage of benefit package for COVID-19 patients. In question was PhilHealth Circular No. 2021-008, which states that the coverage of COVID-19 inpatient packages are for confirmed cases only and probable cases can instead avail themselves of an intermediate package.
House members questioned the retroactive clause of the directive, asking why the circular covers admissions starting Nov. 26, 2020, when the document was issued only in June 2021. Rep. Helen Tan pointed out that this rule “will cause huge losses to hospitals that have already rendered service and processed the claims as well as patients who were already entitled to such claim prior to the issuance of the circular.”
“Millions of COVID-19 probable claims are in danger of being denied as a result of PhilHealth’s turnaround, causing huge losses to healthcare facilities which clinically managed a probable COVID-19 case and eventually causing financial hardship to the patient whose claim will be denied due to fear of prosecution of signatories involved in the approval of the claims,” she added.
The resolution also called on PhilHealth to “review the soundness of the issuances to ensure just and fair policies for the benefit of the Filipino people.”
PhilHealth president Dante Gierran, recognizing the need for rectification, said he will recommend to the board of directors to reconsider the circular. At a time when health officials are in hot water for perceived mistakes, it is proper to commend both the House health committee headed by Tan and PhilHealth president Dante Gierran for doing their job for the greater benefit of the people in this time of the pandemic.
