PhilHealth to pay for COVID-19 tests

Those who have to get tested for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the pneumonia-like disease COVID-19, need not worry about the costs as Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) would shoulder them.

This was the directive of President Duterte on Wednesday, according to Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles.

PhilHealth coverage for COVID-19 would be in addition to the costs entailed in the quarantine and isolation of a patient, said Nograles, a member of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases.

“The President recognizes that everyone in the country is concerned about COVID-19 and the threat this poses to the health and lives of our loved ones, especially vulnerable individuals like senior citizens,” he said. “Given this, the last thing we want is for our citizens to worry about medical costs and expenses. Their only concern should be their well-being and the well-being of their families.”

PhilHealth is preparing the guidelines to formalize and ope­rationalize its payment for the COVID-19 tests, Nograles said, quoting the state insurance company’s president, Ricardo Morales.

The Palace official also said the government was working on speeding up the deployment of coronavirus testing kits.

Validation of test kits

Manila HealthTek, a private research and development company, was set to conduct a field validation study of the test kits developed by scientists from the University of the Philippines.

Philippine General Hospital and the National Institute for Health would support the study, and private hospitals want to join the field validation, Nograles said.

“At this point, they just need to conduct validation of 500 tests for COVID-19 to enable them to conduct clinical sensitivity analysis as a precondition set by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration). Once it passes the clinical tests, the FDA will grant full access by all hospitals, as guided by the DOH (Department of Health),” he said.

The DOH said it had only 2,000 test kits but that it was going to order an additional 40,000.

It said there was already local transmission of the virus and the country, as of Wednesday, had 49 cases, including the first three in January who were all Chinese, one of whom died.

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III had earlier said PhiHealth had decided to create a P14,000 isolation package for COVID-19.

If the patient needed further care, PhilHealth’s P16,000 moderate pneumonia package could be used. For a more serious case, the P32,000 pneumonia package would be used.