PhilHealth: P5.5 billion paid to PH Red Cross so far, for COVID-19 tests

INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) has so far paid P5.5 billion to the Philippine Red Cross (PRC) for the conduct of COVID-19 tests, its spokesperson said Saturday.

Shirley Domingo, also PhilHealth’s Vice President for Corporate Affairs, assured that the state insurer processes the claims of the PRC for coronavirus testing.

“Sa Red Cross, ang nabayaran na natin doon is around P5.5 billion. Tuloy-tuloy ang pag-submit sa atin ng test claims ng Red Cross kaya tuloy-tuloy ang pagprocess natin,” she said at the Laging Handa public briefing.

“At any given time ay may claims sila sa atin so tuloy-tuloy ang pagprocess doon (they have claims so we are continuously processing that),” she added.

As of posting time, Domingo and Senator Richard Gordon, chairman of the PRC, has yet to respond to questions on how much PhilHealth still owes the humanitarian organization.

In October last year, the PRC suspended conducting COVID-19 tests for the government after PhilHealth failed to pay P930 million it owed for the previous tests.

The PRC later resumed testing as PhilHealth managed to settle its obligations.

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