The Insurance Commission said over the weekend it will require a minimum paid-up capital of P100 million on new health maintenance organizations that will operate in the country.
Insurance Commissioner Emmanuel Dooc said HMOs should have the minimum paid-up capital of P100 million before they could receive the license to operate.
The IC recently posted on its Web site a draft memorandum circular requiring the minimum capitalization and stronger financial capacity from the HMOs.
The IC earlier placed the HMOs under its watch IC
President Benigno Aquino III in November last year signed Executive Order No. 192 placing the the HMOs under the supervision of the IC from the Health Department.
An HMO is a prepaid health-care service provider offering comprehensive coverage to its members through partnerships with hospitals and other health professionals.
The executive order transferred the regulatory and supervisory capacities of Health to the IC, including their establishment, operations and financial activities.
Dooc said the commission published the draft circular to get comments from the industry players until April 28.
“After that [deadline], we will no longer entertain late comments, just to put an end to this. We want to fast track this and if we are open to liberal acceptance of late comments, this will not see an ending,” Dooc said.
The draft circular said all existing HMOs must have a minimum paid capital of at least P10 million. These HMOs were the ones that received their license from the previous regulator and those that renewed their license with the IC in December
Dooc said the regulator gave a one-year operating license to companies that applied for renewal last year pending the formulation of new rules.
“Ten applied for the renewal of license. We are processing them, and we are [still] using existing requirements. That’s why we’re only issuing one-year license because eventually we will be using [the] new guidelines,” Dooc said.
He said companies whose license expired after the approval of the new guidelines should meet the P100-million capital requirement.
“Of course, there are big players and I’m happy to say that they are backed up by strong capital. What we have indicated here is if you have no existing license…. and then you come to us to apply… we’ll be imposing P100 million,” Dooc said.
