DOH: Valenzuela private hospital liable for violating anti-detention law

Facade of the Department of Health office in Manila. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Health (DOH) on Friday found a private hospital in Valenzuela City liable for alleged violation of anti-detention law over unpaid medical bills of its patients.

The DOH Health Facilities and Services Regulatory Bureau (HFSRB) said that the Allied Care Experts Medical Center (ACEMC) Valenzuela violated department standards in two cases.

Valenzuela residents Nerizza Zafra and Cheryluvic Ignacio filed their respective complaints against the hospital last April and came forward in a press conference with Mayor Wes Gatchalian in May.

The HFSRB said ACEMC failed to register the birth certificate of Zafra’s daughter due to their outstanding fees, violating a department circular and an administrative order to register births regardless of the parents’ financial status.

Meanwhile, Ignacio said the same hospital did not allow her to get a promissory note to settle her remaining balance when she was in the facility for COVID-19.

In her case, the HFSRB found ACEMC to have misrepresented a room with two beds but without a partition as a private room, contrary to COVID-19 response guidelines.

The DOH imposed a P30,000 administrative fine on the hospital.

Health Secretary Teodoro Herbosa said, “The DOH will not tolerate and shall act on any administrative violations by our healthcare institutions.”

The HFSRB, however, also found ACEMC not liable in two prior cases filed by individuals Richel Mae Alvaro and Lovery Magtangob, both of whom also appeared in a press conference with Gatchalian in April.

READ: Valenzuela hospital under investigation over detention complaints

The bureau said the Anti-Hospital Detention Law or Republic Act No. 9439 was “in the nature of a penal law” and “well beyond the limited administrative powers of the DOH.”