PhilHealth to pay off bulk of P27B hospital dues in 90 days

FILE PHOTO. PhilHealth

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (Philhealth) on Wednesday said it is confident that it can settle the majority, if not all, of the P27 billion it owes to hospitals within 90 days.

PhilHealth president and CEO Emmanuel Ledesma Jr. told legislators that their executive committee (execom) met Tuesday as they are preparing to utilize the Debit Credit Payment Mechanism (DCPM) to pay off hospital debts.

Ledesma attended the hearing of the House committee on appropriations on the proposed 2024 budget of the Department of Health (DOH) and its attached agencies amounting to P311.3 billion. PhilHealth, an attached agency of the DOH, is given a P101.5 billion allocation for next year.

“I am very happy to state to the honorable congressman that we will completely [settle], hopefully, or very high percentage, within 90 days, the P27 billion,” Ledesma said in response to the query of Agri party-list Rep. Wilbert Lee on the status of the state insurer’s hospital payables.

READ: Hospitals on PhilHealth debt: ‘That’s our money, but our hands are tied’

“The question is how can we do it? How [do] we intend to do it? We are already preparing, we already had a meeting. Our Execom had a meeting yesterday [and] we are preparing to use the DCPM formula.”

“Based on our discussion yesterday, I am confident that within 90 days from today, bulk or majority, if not all, of the 27 billion will be paid off,” he added.

READ: Philhealth debts may lead to hospital shutdowns

“Hopefully, that would make the doctors and the hospitals happy,” Ledesma continued.

Philhealth explained that DCPM provides fast release of funds to qualified hospitals while reimbursement claims are still under process.

But some healthcare stakeholders questioned this “unilateral” process.

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