Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office through the Charity Assistance Department, announced on Saturday that the agency has modified its budget allocation program for its medical assistance services due to the overutilization of funds.
“The Budget Department has called the attention of CAD with regard to its fund utilization for the year. The Individual Medical Assistance Program [IMAP] already exceeded its utilization by more than P500 million. This is attributed to a marked increase in the number of beneficiaries availing of financial support from the agency by 27.93 percent for the first semester of 2018 compared to its 2017 data of the same period. This is compounded further by the rising cost in healthcare treatment,” explained assistant general manager for Charity Sector, Dr. Larry Cedro in response to several complaints from patients at the Lung Center of the Philippines from the time the shift in providing assistance was implemented.
“If CAD will not change the manner by which it provides medical assistance, this would result to overspending again and will be a major concern, particularly with Commission on Audit which reviews fund utilization and program implementation by the agency,” he added.
To address the overutilization, Cedro said that the agency has modified the case rates for hospitalization with an end view for establishing control in providing financial support to individuals.
Board Resolution No. 0256 Series 2018 has approved the suspension of the classification system of the Individual Medical Assistance Program case rate in providing assistance for client-patients.
The daily allocation for Individual Medical Assistance Program now is P4.1 million which resulted in the reduction of the number of applications the PCSO may accept and process.
“You have probably received complaints about it, but we need to do this or else we will go back to the issue of ‘overutilization’. As a general rule, you only operate within your budget. Simply put, we can only give what we have,” stressed Cedro.
While Cedro admitted that some sectors of the society especially the senior citizens, persons with disability, etc., were affected by these changes, efforts are being done to address the matter.
“We are asking for everyone’s understanding and cooperation. This is only temporary and the management is doing everything in order to address the issue.” said Cedro.