MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (Philhealth) on Wednesday said it is working with the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) on data sharing to enable them to verify if its claimants are either dead or alive.
“What we’re doing and what we did is, even before this WellMed issue, we were already in talks with the PSA about data sharing,” Philhealth spokesperson Dr. Gigi Domingo said in an interview over Radyo Inquirer.
“Para ‘yung mga death statistics nila, kung ma-share sa amin, then ita-tag na namin sa database na namatay na ‘yung mga taong iyon,” Domingo further explained.
According to Domingo, Philhealth already had “two or three” meetings with PSA regarding the matter. She also said the two agencies are already drafting a memorandum of agreement (MOA) on data sharing.
“Alam niyo, hindi ganun kadali ang data sharing because of our Data Privacy law,” Domingo noted. “And in fact, regarding this WelMed [issue], humingi na kami ng data sa PSA mga later last year, and we received in January an official communication na hindi pwede because of data privacy.”
Domingo said PSA advised them to talk to a claimant’s relatives “and if they are authorizing us, then we can get evidence from them.”
“So we have to talk to the relatives pa. But if we have a MOA with them because government to government, then data sharing na kami,” she said
“That’s the answer, we’ve been working on talaga,” she also stressed.
The Inquirer recently came out with a report exposing that Quezon City-based WellMed Dialysis and Laboratory Center Corp. (WellMed) continues to ask Philhealth for dialysis payments even when their patients have already died.
READ: PhilHealth pays for ghost kidney treatments
(Editor: Katherine G. Adraneda)