Archdiocese of Manila no longer managing CSMC since 1998 – Pabillo

MANILA, Philippines — The Archdiocese of Manila has not been managing the day-to-day operations of the Cardinal Santos Medical Center (CSMC) since 1998.

Bishop Broderick Pabillo, the archdiocese’s apostolic administrator, issued the statement on Wednesday after lawmakers earlier threatened to recommend the filing of plunder charges against a former official of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth), the Archdiocese of Manila, and the hospital it owned over alleged millions of “missing” funds.

Pabillo said that while the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Manila (RCAM) was the registered owner of the property where the hospital is located, it decided to engage the services of a third party, the Hospital Managers Inc. (HMI), “to professionally manage and operate the hospital, on August 1, 1988, for a period of 10 years, renewable for another 10 years, until 31 July 2008.”

“Thus, in that period, RCAM was not involved in the day-to-day operations of the hospital, and hence was not involved in any transactions with PhilHealth,” added Pabillo.

Deputy Speaker Rodante Marcoleta, during the August 25 House probe into the corruption allegations against PhilHealth, said that the state insurer allegedly demanded P240 million from the Cardinal Santos Medical Center in 2011 because the hospital supposedly “under-deducted” from payment balances of patients.

Marcoleta explained that “under deduction” happens when a hospital only deducted a flat rate from the hospital bills of a patient but charged the whole cost of the medical service rendered to the patient to PhilHealth.

This “under deduction” amounted to P240 million from about 48,000 PhilHealth members which the state health insurer asked to be refunded from the HMI, said Marcoleta. However, he added, instead of refunding the said amount, HMI filed a case against PhilHealth. The case ended in a settlement where HMI merely refunded P70 million to PhilHealth.

According to Anakalusugan party-list Rep. Mike Defensor, should the House panels recommend the filing of plunder charges, the Cardinal Santos Medical Center, HMI, and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Manila will be included in the cases.