MANILA, Philippines — A 3-year-old senior citizen? Fifty thousand centenarians?
Senator Francis Tolentino on Tuesday flagged what he claimed to be an “overbloated” database of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth), noting that a three-year-old member was tagged as a senior citizen in its records, while there were thousands of centenarians listed as members.
During the resumption of the Senate investigation into alleged anomalies within PhilHealth, Tolentino bared a list wherein members below 60 years old were tagged as “active senior citizen members.”
“There’s a PhilHealth classification of senior citizens below 60 years old. Papano naman po nangyari yung senior citizen ka below 60 years old?” Tolentino asked.
“Dito po sa figures na pinapakita ko, meron po ditong isang senior citizen na 18 years old. Meron po dito three years old, ginawa niyong senior citizen. Three years old lang,” he said.
Tolentino also disclosed figures his office was able to obtain which showed that there are 40,000 centenarians in one region, while another region has 10,000 centenarians listed as PhilHealth members.
Given this, Tolentino said it should be high time for the state insurer to cleanse its database.
“So it is possible that we have an overbloated list of members?” he asked. “Kaya ko po binabanggit baka tayo magkaproblema, ‘pag pinatupad po yung national ID system kasi maraming kukunin sa PhilHealth records tapos… pinakamarami po tayo — super centenarian — sa buong mundo?”
“Kailan matatapos yung pagke-cleanse ng records niyo, baka bumoto pa yung iba dito,” he further said.
In response, PhilHealth president and CEO Ricardo Morales said the agency will be creating a position that would address issues on its database.
“Ang PhilHealth ang may pinakamalaking database, 109 million members at constant ho na nililinis,” Morales told senators.
“Magke-create ho kami ng posisyon na corporate data officer,” he said, adding that PhilHealth will seek help from the Philippine Statistics Authority and the Department of Social Welfare and Development to “cleanse” state insurer’s database.