PhilHealth insists it has been paying hospitals

MANILA, Philippines—The Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) said it should not be blamed for the financial problems of several private hospitals that were in danger of laying off staff or shutting down.

The state health insurance company on Friday said that its alleged unpaid claims wasn’t the only reason some hospitals may be forced to stop operations, pointing out that the COVID-19 outbreak not only adversely impacted businesses but also reduced hospital admissions due to the public’s fears of contracting the novel coronavirus from patients and staff.

It again denied a claim by the Private Hospitals Association of the Philippines Inc.

(PHAPI) that around 300 hospitals may close down due to delayed PhilHealth payments.

“The corporation, based on payment dates of claims per year, has paid a total of P114.6 billion to its accredited hospitals in 2018 and P97.4 billion in 2019.

This year, PhilHealth has so far disbursed more than P43 billion, of which P24.5 billion or 56.8 percent were paid to private hospitals,” PhilHealth said in a statement on Friday.

Earlier, Cagayan de Oro 2nd District Rep. Rufus Rodriguez filed House Resolution No. 970 which urged PhilHealth to pay private hospitals a total of P18 billion to help ensure continued full operation while country was still battling the COVID-19 outbreak.

The lawmaker got his figures from PHAPI.

PhilHealth noted that the issues Rodriguez raised had already been “adequately responded to previously.”

“PhilHealth continues to find ways to ensure that claims are fast-tracked and paid within the prescribed period of 60 days as mandated by law.

Currently, it is also designating accounts reconciliation officers to support hospitals in claims records reconciliation, the solution agreed upon with PHAPI in a meeting with Sen. [Christopher ‘Bong’] Go in 2019,” it said.

“PhilHealth continues to call upon hospitals to reconcile their claims records with their regional offices to keep themselves updated of the status of their claims,” it added.