2 hospital workers suspended for PhilHealth violation

LINGAYEN, Pangasinan—Gov. Amado Espino Jr. suspended two community hospital employees in Manaoag town, for allegedly making an indigent patient pay for her hospital confinement despite her medical insurance coverage.

Jessie Fabia, administrative assistant II, and Richell Fernandez, casual pharmacy aide, of the government-owned Manaoag Community Hospital were suspended for 60 days on Jan. 16 while they underwent administrative inquiry.

They faced sanctions for dishonesty, grave misconduct and abuse of authority that stemmed from a Jan. 2 handwritten letter addressed to Espino from the patient, who claimed she was charged P4,000 for her confinement in the community hospital from Aug. 16 to 20 last year.

The patient said her confinement was supposed to have been paid by the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) under its Point of Care (POC) program.

The POC program is a health-care mechanism that automatically enrolls indigent patients or their dependents as PhilHealth beneficiaries the moment they are admitted and confined in a government hospital.

The program requires the provincial government to pay for the patient’s P2,400 PhilHealth premium contribution.

The patient said she was first billed P8,000 for her hospital stay, but Fernandez allegedly reduced the charge to P4,000 at Fabia’s supposed instructions.

The complainant said she no longer contested the hospital charges when she was directed to pay her account at the pharmacy in exchange for a discharge form. Gabriel Cardinoza, Inquirer Northern Luzon