PhilHealth chief vows to dismantle internal ‘mafia’

Members of the Alliance of Health Workers and other militant groups gather outside the PhilHealth office in Quezon City on Wednesday, June 19, 2019, to demand the prosecution of those responsible for the irregularities in the state health insurance company, a longtime problem detailed in a series of Inquirer investigative reports. (File photo by JAM STA. ROSA / Philippine Daily Inquirer)

MANILA, Philippines — Ricardo Morales, president and chief executive officer of Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth), vows to “dismantle” the alleged “mafia” within the government-owned and -controlled corporation.

“If there is a mafia, I will dismantle that mafia. That’s one of my initiatives,” Morales said in an interview with ABS-CBN News Channel on Monday.

Last Aug. 14, during a Senate blue ribbon committee hearing on the alleged anomalies in the company, former PhilHealth board member Roberto Salvador identified the alleged members of a “mafia” which had “control over all influence” within the company.

Most of those he identified are regional vice presidents, who were quick to deny the allegations.

In his TV interview, Morales said: “They are being reshuffled… to disconnect [them] — if there are any connections — with the internal mechanisms of the regions they’ve been assigned to,” Morales said during the interview.

The PhilHealth chief also said he had formed a team consisting of “very reputable individuals” to conduct an internal probe on the matter.

“I have been joined also by people from the [accounting, management services industries], very reputable individuals who are now working in PhilHealth and we are now conducting this internal probe but we are not yet ready to reveal the results because it’s still ongoing,” he said.

PhilHealth has been embroiled in controversies over alleged corruption and fraudulent activities.

A three-part report by the Inquirer revealed that PhilHealth has been paying for “ghost” dialysis treatments and have lost billions of pesos due to fraudulent claims.

Balancing act

Asked on how he would rid the PhilHealth’s claims department of fraud, Morales said: “It’s a delicate balancing act between paying quickly and then risking paying incorrectly… It’s a difficult balancing act and I think as they said the road to hell is paved with good intentions.”

Morales also reacted to Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian’s statement over the weekend saying that PhilHealth should first fix its corruption problem before lawmakers would approve a bill to increase the excise tax on alcoholic drinks, which would help fund the Universal Health Care Act.

“That’s actually logical because you do not put something into a container that has holes. It will leak and… you’ll lose all that money,” Morales said.

“But it’s not an either-or situation where you have to fix it first before you collect the taxes. They can collect the taxes, we can fix it simultaneously,” he added.

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