Garin says PhilHealth had been paying for a lot of ‘ghost’ treatments

Former DOH Secretary Dr. Janette P. Loreto-Garin. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / LYN RILLON

MANILA, Philippines — Some doctors and officials in the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (Philhealth) are taking P16,000 to P32,000 worth of funds from the agency to pay for “ghost” treatments of alleged patients, former Health Secretary Janette Garin disclosed on Wednesday.

“Yung mga wala naman talagang totoong sakit, gagawan ng papel… marami po ang hinahakot lalagyan ng report na may sakit kokolektahin sa PhilHealth,” Garin said in a press briefing about Philhealth controversies in Quezon City.

(A lot of the people they have no real ailments but documents will be submitted to PhilHealth to make it appear they are sick and payments will be collected.) 

“Pero ang totoo niyan hinahakot sila, pinakain, binigyan ng pamasahe and people will be happy nabigyan ng 500 pero sinisingil ng hospital, ng kasabwat na doctor at opisyales sa loob yung PhilHealth ng let’s say P16,000 and sometimes even P32,000,” Garin added.

(The real thing is that the people are being given food, transportation fare and P500 so they will be contented and happy. But the hospital, in cahoots with doctors and PhilHealth officials, they will collect around P16,000 and sometimes P32,000.)

Garin then recounted that PhilHealth was also funding treatments of alleged fake cataract surgeries in 2006.

“In 2006, when I exposed what we discovered in Region 6… maraming cataract surgeries. May mga namatay, unfortunately, maraming papel na we demanded from PhilHealth at tila nawawala,” she said.

Garin also claimed that PhilHealth has been paying for treatments of ghost patients for pneumonia and dengue. (Editor: Jonathan P. Vicente)

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