Private hospitals eye better PhilHealth transactions under Bongbong Marcos admin

BACK TO THE FOLD. Some of the hospitals that threatened to cut ties with the state insurers have decided to give it one more try. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — With a new administration set to be in power by the end of June, the Private Hospitals Association of the Philippines (PHAPI) on Saturday amplified its call for more efficient transactions with the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth).

“Doon sa naging karanasan namin noong nakaraang mga taon sa PhilHealth, iyon ang dapat pagtuunan ng pansin ng bagong administrasyon. Sana hindi tayo magkaroon ng problema sa ating mga claim sa PhilHealth, nang sa ganoon ay hindi magkaroon ng problem ang operasyon ng ating mga private hospital na masyadong nagre-rely dito sa ating mga claim sa PhilHealth,” PHAPI President Dr. Jose Rene De Grano said at the Laging Handa briefing.

(From our experience with PhilHealth these past years, the new administration should focus on problem-free transactions with private hospitals, especially those heavily reliant on PhilHealth claims, so we won’t have problems with their operations.)

De Grano also stressed that fixing the organization of the insurance provider, in line with the requests of private and even government hospitals, would help realize a better healthcare system in the country for the next six years.

While dialogues between PHAPI and PhilHealth continue at present, he said that some payment claims have yet to be received by private hospitals especially in far-off areas.

“Iyong in-eexpect namin na pagbabayad noong claims ay hindi po naibibigay pang lahat. Lalo doon sa medyo malayo [na lugar], sinasabi nila na hindi pa rin kumpleto ‘yong kanilang claims,” he noted.

(The complete payment claims that we are expecting have not yet been given. Especially in faraway places, they’re saying that payment claims have not yet been given to them in full.)

PhilHealth in August 2021 released the revised guidelines on the temporary suspension of payment claims (TSPC). With already billions-worth of unpaid claims for COVID-19 cases since 2020, the rift between the state insurer and hospitals has widened.

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/MUF