"The agency has to be cleaned up completely and viable safeguards have to be put in place."
"The agency has to be cleaned up completely and viable safeguards have to be put in place."
When it has doubts about the safety for human consumption of a product that it is being asked to approve, the Food and Dug Administration usually asks the product’s manufacturer to place the following warning: “This product may be dangerous to your health.”
This warning keeps coming to my mind as I read and hear about the massive corruption and gross mismanagement that have been plaguing this country’s national health care institution, Philippine Health Insurance Corporation. PhilHealth truly may be dangerous to the health of this country and its people.
The danger posed by PhilHealth to the nation and the Filipino people has three parts: One part relates to PhilHealth’s financial viability. Another part relates to PhilHealth’s ability to provide support to this country’s hospitals and health care institutions. The third part relates to the Filipino people’s trust in the institution that has been mandated by law to implement the Universal Health Care Act.
First, PhilHealth’s financial position. Under intensive questioning during the recent Senate hearings, PhilHealth’s chief financial officer expressed the opinion that the financial position of this country’s national health insurer would remain sound – meaning, it would have resources sufficient to finance its operations – only until 2022. That admission hardly came as a surprise after successive revelations of billions worth of irregular PhilHealth disbursements. To say that the senators were shocked is an understatement. With its initial capitalization and the continuing inflow of funds representing its share of “sin” tax collections, a well-managed PhilHeath should not now be in the financial position indicated by its CFO.
Apart from the all-too-obvious attempt to overprice the intended acquisition of an information technology system, the most blatant manifestation of the gross mismanagement of PhilHealth by the tandem of its chairman Francisco Duque, Jr. and its president Ricardo Morales is the highly irregular use of the Interim Reimbursement Mechanism funds. Hundreds of millions of pesos were revealed to have been used in a manner clearly indicative of favoritism and corruption. IRM funding, which is PhilHealth’s principal mechanism for supporting the nation’s hospitals, apparently was made available principally to hospitals and clinics – even those that had few or zero COVID-19 patients – favored by PhilHealth officials. Those officials, operating away from the public’s gaze, have been playing fast and loose with the IRM funds, to the detriment of deserving hospitals and clinics. The adverse impact of this on the morale of members of the medical community has been severe.
But the greatest health danger posed by PhilHealth’s mismanagement and corruption has been to the Filipino people’s trust in their national health insurer. If a survey were to be taken today about the Filipino people’s attitude toward PhilHealth – especially its top management – that survey would very likely show an almost complete loss of trust in PhilHealth. How could they be blamed? The information gathered by the Senate hearings indicate the existence of corruption on a seemingly systemic scale. The nation’s national health insurer appears to them to have become one vast den of iniquity. A large amount of work will need to be done – not just the appointment of another president – if the Filipino people’s trust is to be restored.
Until the mess at PhilHealth has been cleaned up completely and viable safeguards have been put in place, the Filipino people will be inclined to heed the warning “PhilHealth may be a danger to your country’s health.”
