Morales: Errors in PhilHealth not ‘large-scale’, ‘systemic’

MANILA, Philippines —  While there are indeed errors in the processing of claims in Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth), it does not amount to systemic or as “large-scale” fraud as alleged by presidential spokesman Harry Roque Jr.

PhilHealth president Ricardo Morales on Friday admitted that there are errors in the processing of claims but the state insurer, along with other government agencies, found no evidence of large-scale fraud or corruption.

He pointed out that PhilHealth processes at least 50,000 claims a day, which is bound to have mistakes such as bouncing checks or rejected by the computer, among others.

“Mayroon talagang mga mali diyan, mga tumatalbog, nagkamali ‘yung clerk, mali ‘yung code, nire-reject ng computer pero hindi yung sinasabi niya na systemic na sindikato na gumagawa ng fraud,” Morales said in an interview over ABS-CBN’s Teleradyo.

(It is bound to have errors. There are checks that bounced, clerks who made mistakes, unreadable codes or rejected by the computer but there is no systemic fraud.)

“Wala kaming nakitang ebidensya [ng large scale fraud],” he added.

(We found no evidence of large scale fraud.)

Roque earlier alleged that PhilHealth is losing money due to corruption, adding that he was planning to expose more irregularities in the state insurer.

Moreles earlier challenged the presidential spokesman to bring evidence of corruption within PhilHealth to court.

READ: Corruption within PhilHealth? Morales tells Roque to go to court

The PhilHealth official earlier revealed that the agency has so far recorded around 10,000 cases involving erring health institutions and medical professionals with “upcasing” or “false claims.”

He assured that the agency is already going after these institutions and professionals and filing cases with the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).

READ: PhilHealth records around 10K cases of ‘upcasing,’ false claims