PhilHealth to make public list of hospitals that got P15-B response fund
MANILA, Philippines — To deny allegations of corruption, the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) will make public the list of medical facilities that received the over P15 billion worth of response fund released by the government insurance firm.
PhilHealth spokeswoman Shirley Domingo told dzBB that the agency released P14.9 billion to 711 medical facilities to help them cope with expenses during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
“Pinag-uusapan namin. Willing naman kami sa isang newspaper like around a week or two, ito yung data natin, maglalabas kami. Ipi-print namin sa newspaper,” Domingo said when asked if the agency will reveal the names of hospitals that received the funds but did not disclose the name of the newspaper.
(We are talking about it. We are willing, we already told a newspaper around a week or two, we showed the data, we will reveal it. We will have it printed in a newspaper.)
Domingo said they released the funds which is part of PhilHealth’s Interim Reimbursement Fund (IRM), around March this year amid the pandemic.
In a Senate inquiry on Thursday, lawyer Thorrsson Keith, a former anti-fraud officer of PhilHealth, claimed that P15 billion funds of PhilHealth were pocketed by syndicates in the agency.
Lifestyle check
Asked about the task force formed by the Department of Justice to probe PhilHealth’s supposed irregularities, Domingo said they are ready to face the probe.
She said the agency also immediately conducted a lifestyle check on its employees to determine if some of their workers were involved in the corruption allegations.
“‘Yung lahat naman ng naririnig ninyo ay complaints that are not substantiated by facts,” she said.
(All of the complaints are not substantiated by facts.)
“So ngayon mayroon na magiimbestiga, fine, gusto natin yan. In fact, yesterday morning before lumabas yung announcement na yan, ay nag-agree na ang lahat ng execom (executive committee) member na magpalifestyle check voluntarily para ma-prove once for all talaga kung napa-pocket nila yung P15 billion na yan,” Domingo added.
(Now that someone stepped in for investigation, fine, we want that. In fact, yesterday morning before that announcement came in, all our execom members agreed to have a lifestyle check to prove if some of the funds were pocketed.)
