MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) has so far released over P10 billion to public hospitals in response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in the country.
PhilHealth spokesperson and Vice President for Corporate Affairs Shirley Domingo. Screengrab from DOH online presser
PhilHealth spokesperson Shirley Domingo said that this is part of the P30-billion worth of funds that the agency has prepositioned for the country’s response to the pandemic.
About P5.6 billion were released to hospitals treating COVID-19 patients, she said.
“Nagprepositin na tayong pera para doon sa mga hospital para kung mangailangan sila at dumami ang kanilang kailangang alagaan na COVID-19 patients ay nandoon na ‘yung pera,” she said in a virtual press briefing.
PhilHealth utilized its interim reimbursement mechanism where hospitals advance their three month’s worth of claims from the agency.
Aside from the P10 billion, the agency has also released about P21-billion worth of regular claims.
Domingo gave assurance that PhilHealth still has sufficient funds to address the pandemic as it earlier vowed to shoulder the medical expenses of COVID-19 patients.
The agency earlier released a new case rate package for patients who will be hospitalized starting April 15.
All Filipinos are covered by PhilHealth under the Universal Health Care Law, but a case rate package sets the maximum amount that the state insurer will pay for the treatment of a patient for a certain ailment. A patient would have to pay hospital charges over this amount out-of-pocket, or through personal health insurance.
Coverage for mild pneumonia is set at P43,997, moderate pneumonia at P143,267, severe pneumonia at P333,519, and critical pneumonia at P786,384.
“May pondo pa rin tayo pero hindi ito unlimited kaya tayo naglabas ng case rate para mabalanse ang mga gastos sa mga kaso ngayon,” Domingo said.
(We still have funds but this is not unlimited thus we released a new case rate so that expenses will be balanced.)
The country so far has 6,981 confirmed cases of COVID-19, 722 of which have recovered while 462 have succumbed to the disease.