The debt of Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) to Philippine Red Cross for the cost of COVID-19 tests has gone down to around P399 million after a recent payment, PRC chairman and Senator Richard Gordon said on Friday. “They have paid a huge amount last time. From P800 million, their debt is now at P399 million. They paid us P400 million,” Gordon said during Laging Handa briefing.
PRC has since resumed testing after PhilHealth settled about half of the balance of the debts.
Gordon also reiterated the appeal to PhilHealth to regularly pay its debt so that they can sustain their operations.
“We are still testing every day. Just yesterday, we tested 10,000 people. Of course, their payments will increase again. So let us not wait for the debt to balloon again so that our operations will continue,” he said.
Gordon earlier expressed concerns on PhilHealth for not being prompt in its payment to the PRC.
The senator also warned of stopping the operations of PRC testing centers if the state insurance firm will not pay up its debt.
Back in October last year, PRC halted conducting COVID-19 tests chargeable to PhilHealth after the latter failed to settle its outstanding balance amounting to nearly P1 billion.