A congressman from Manila has told health department officials to prevent the program for indigent patients in Metro Manila from being abused.
Manila Rep. Manuel Luis Lopez, chair of the House of Representatives Committee on Metro Manila Development, made the statement as his panel called a hearing to get an update by the Department of Health-Metro Manila Center for Health Development on the P17-billion Medical Assistance to Indigent Patients Program for Metro Manila.
Lopez said, “It is crucial and important that we ensure that this program is free from abuse. Safeguards must be put in place to ensure the integrity of the program.”
At the congressional hearing, Lopez said the program had been extended and catered to indigent patients hospitalized in private medical hospitals in Metro Manila even as he lauded the DoH for its effective implementation of the program.
DOH-MMCHD Regional Director Gloria 1 and Assistant Regional Director Maria Paz Corrales attended the meeting.
Lopez said many of his constituents in Tondo were granted access to the azMAIP.
“I witnessed the big help that this program has provided the needy in Tondo (Manila),” Lopez said, adding, “specially now that this program is being made available to private hospitals in certain cases.”
“With Congress significantly raising the program’s allocation from P10.5 billion in 2020 to P17 billion for 2021, MAIP stands to do a lot of good for a populace reeling from unemployment, rising prices, and the effects of the pandemic,” Lopez added.
He stressed: “It is important that we have this program also available to private hospitals.”
He added: “There are times when it is necessary for highly complicated cases that require specialist physicians and equipment only available in some private hospitals and in cases for example, of vehicular accidents where stabilizing the patient is time essential … it becomes imperative that you go to the nearest hospital.”
Balboa, meanwhile, said the MAIP program provided support for medicines, medical and or orthopedic devices, dental services (except those that are for aesthetic purposes and not medically indicated) or other medically related needs prescribed by the physician of a health facility for in-patients and out-patients, in excess of the packages/case rates covered by Philippine Health Insurance, Corp. or other financing sources subject to the availability of funds.