A bill has been filed in the House of Representatives providing a monthly P4,000 subsidy directly to registered nurses employed in qualifying private health facilities, funded through a dedicated line item within the PhilHealth case rate reimbursement system.
House Bill 8453, or the Private Nurse Retention Act, authored by Albay 3rd District Rep. Raymond Adrian Salceda, seeks to address a worsening structural crisis in the nursing sector.
The Department of Health estimates that 316,000 licensed Filipino nurses, or 51 percent of all those qualified, have migrated overseas. As of 2023, the Philippines faces a shortage of around 127,000 nurses, a number projected to reach 250,000 by 2030.
Private hospitals bear the brunt of the shortage. At the height of the pandemic, 40 percent of nurses in private hospitals had resigned.
“This is no longer a brain drain. It is already a hemorrhage. It is unfortunate that nurses are forced to leave, and it is unfortunate for Filipinos who fall ill,” Salceda said.
Under HB 8453, private hospitals that already pay their nurses at least 80 percent of the Salary Grade 15 rate qualify for the program, and their nurses receive a P4,000 monthly top-up disbursed directly through a government-linked electronic payment system tied to the Philippine Identification System.
The bill rewards facilities that are already making efforts to compensate their nurses fairly and gives nurses a concrete reason to stay.
The subsidy will not pass through hospital accounts. PhilHealth will remit the funds directly into a dedicated Private Nurse Retention Fund in the National Treasury, which will then disburse the amount straight to the nurse’s account.
The measure also contains a strict maintenance-of-effort requirement, prohibiting hospitals from reducing a nurse’s basic salary in anticipation of or in response to the subsidy.
Any facility caught crediting the subsidy against its own compensation obligations will be immediately disqualified, while officers who submit falsified payroll documentation may face criminal liability under the Revised Penal Code.
In exchange for the subsidy, nurses must commit to a two-year service obligation in a qualifying private facility within the Philippines.
A nurse who leaves for overseas employment before completing the two-year period must repay a prorated portion of the subsidy received.
Transfers between qualifying facilities will not break the obligation, while exemptions apply in cases of death, permanent disability, termination without just cause, and facility closure.
The bill provides that the subsidy will be funded through a nurse wage line item embedded within the PhilHealth case rate reimbursement system, drawn from PhilHealth’s investment income and reserve funds.
