NOT COVERED Even in the early months of the pandemic, many hospitals had to set up tents to accommodate COVID-19 patients awaiting space in their intensive care units. A recent House inquiry revealed that one hospital had been billing “P1,000 per hour’’ for the use of such tents—an expense not covered by PhilHealth. —INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — Health care facilities in all “high risk and critical risk” areas for COVID-19 can now avail of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation’s (PhilHealth) debit-credit payment scheme, Malacañang announced on Friday.
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) on Thursday approved the application of PhilHealth’s debit-credit payment method in all areas considered high and critical risk for COVID-19.
Initially, the said payment scheme only applied to areas identified by the IATF or the National Task Force Against COVID-19 (NTF), particularly Metro Manila, Batangas, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, Pampanga and Rizal.
High risk and critical risk areas, Roque said, will also be given priority, Roque said.
“These other high risk and critical risk areas will also be prioritized in the COVID-19 vaccine allocation, human health resource deployment, and other relevant COVID-19 response, as applicable,” he said in a statement.
Under the PhilHealth Circular 2021-0004, the use of the debit-credit payment method is approved to facilitate the settlement of accounts payable to healthcare facilities during the state of public health emergency brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.
President Rodrigo Duterte earlier ordered PhilHealth to expedite its hospital claims payments.