The Philippine Institute of Traditional and Alternative Health Care (Pitahc) is pushing for the inclusion of acupuncture and chiropractic care in the Universal Health Care (UHC) coverage in a bid to reintroduce safe and effective alternative medicines to patients.
In a press conference on Wednesday, Pitahc director general Annabelle Pabiona-De Guzman said the institute created under the Department of Health (DOH) submitted last year its clinical practice guidelines for acupuncture.
This will then go through scrutiny by the Health Technology Assessment Council (HTAC) to determine whether it could be covered by Philippine Health Insurance Corp. under the UHC, she added.
Pitahc is also set to turn over by the end of the year the clinical practice guidelines for chiropractic and its own studies on the traditional “hilot.”
According to De Guzman, acupuncture and chiropractic care are available in around 60 accredited clinics nationwide as well as at traditional medicine centers in DOH-run hospitals.
The other alternative health-care modalities recognized by Pitahc are homeopathy, homotoxicology, naturopathy, osteopathy, traditional Chinese medicine, Tui Na massage and biointegrative therapy.