Recruitment firms issued fake receipts to OFWs, says PhilHealth

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) on Wednesday said the alleged fake receipts issued for premium payments of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) were issued by the liaison officers of recruitment agencies, and “not by anyone” at the state insurance firm.

PhilHealth President and Chief Executive Officer Ricardo Morales issued the statement after former and current Philhealth officials were charged with graft and administrative charges before the Office of the Ombudsman for allegedly failing to act on fake receipts issued for premium payments of OFWs.

“Said fake receipts were issued by these liaison officers themselves for premiums that they collect from unsuspecting OFWs but did not remit to PhilHealth,” Morales said.

Morales also clarified that the scam caused PhilHealth a net loss of P1.2 million and not P16 million as earlier reported.

“To date, PhilHealth has recovered a total of P430,000 from these agencies, while the balance is in various stages of recovery,” he said.

Philhealth said it has reported the scheme to the National Bureau of Investigation in 2015 for a more thorough investigation and since then, the agency claimed it has been in constant coordination with the NBI for guidance on the necessary legal actions to take against the perpetrators.

“To prevent these from happening again, the agency is further strengthening its IT system as well as its coordination with the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration for a mechanism that will assure OFWs that their premium contributions are properly remitted to and accounted for, pursuant to the approval of POEA’s Governing Board on the matter in January 2019,” PhilHealth said.

Edited by EDV