PACC uncovers loopholes, systemic flaws in PhilHealth system

MANILA, Philippines — The Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC) has found loopholes and systemic flaws in state-owned Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) that lead to recurring corruption in the P221-billion agency charged with managing the country’s universal health-care system.

“There’s really a systemic flaw in PhilHealth’s system,” PACC Commissioner Greco Belgica said at the televised Laging Handa briefing. “Which is why it’s so difficult, why corruption keeps recurring and doesn’t stop.”

Belgica said the PACC was ready to submit to President Duterte next week a partial report on its investigation of the latest scandal to hit PhilHealth and identified officials purportedly involved.

Belgica declined to detail the agency’s findings but said these had to do with recurring issues in the state health insurance agency’s information technology system and legal services.

“We’ve identified officials who may be involved and positions that are vulnerable for these kinds of corruption,” he said, adding that the flaws and loopholes basically amounted to insurance fraud.

There were hospitals and patients who were defrauding PhilHealth, and the agency was “blind” to these, Belgica said. Many had benefited from these schemes, he said.

“We have specific cases to validate and to prove our theory, and recommendations on what should be changed in the system,” Belgica said without specifying whether he was referring to anomalies uncovered in the past or the latest scandal.