Hospitals will now be held liable in case an emergency patient, including pregnant women, are refused admittance due to their failure to pose a deposit and dies.
This was declared by Parañaque City Rep. Gus Tambunting as he lauded the Supreme Court’s decision which upheld the constitutionality of Republic Act 10932 or the Anti-Hospital Deposit Law.
Tambunting was one of the principal authors of the measure at the House of Representatives.
“I am proud our Supreme Court has ruled that this law has not violated the rights of our hospitals, said Tambunting, chairman of the House committee on games and amusements.
“Clearly, there was no real basis for this case to have been filed in the first place,” he said.
Tambunting added that “no Filipino must be deprived of basic emergency care due to poverty. We ask our hospitals to be our partner in achieving this goal.”
The Supreme Court ruled that “If the Court were to invalidate the questioned law on the basis of conjectures and suppositions, then it would be unduly treading questions of policy and wisdom not only of the legislature that passed it, but also of the executive which approved it.”
The law increased the penalties against hospitals which require deposits before accepting patients in emergency or serious cases.
The coverage of the law extends to pregnant women in active labor as one of the emergency cases which hospitals cannot refuse. It also makes the hospital liable in case a patient dies due to the refusal of treatment by the medical facility.
Tambunting said RA 10932 is one of his legislative legacies as it will ensure the health of poor patients are not put at even greater risk simply because they do not have enough money to pay the advanced deposit.