Red Cross resumes testing with conditions

MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Richard Gordon, in his capacity as chair of the Philippine Red Cross (PRC), announced on Wednesday the full resumption of its testing for COVID-19 after receiving half of Philippine Health Insurance Corp.’s (PhilHealth) debt of P1.1 billion.

But Gordon warned PhilHealth that the humanitarian nonprofit would expect to be paid within three days of billing for the testing it performs on individuals under the sponsorship of the state health insurer.

“All the new tests [must be paid] within three days. They get the billing and they pay right away,” Gordon told reporters in a hastily called Zoom briefing on Tuesday night.

“We will no longer allow [the previous arrangement]. It really scared me. If they would not pay in three days, I would tell them we will stop the tests,” the senator said.

PRC halted its COVID-19 diagnostic on Oct. 15 after PhilHealth failed to settle its P1.1-billion arrears representing about 300,000 tests performed by Red Cross since Sept. 1.