The Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) has released P6.3-billion worth of claims of hospitals in high-risk areas in the battle against COVID-19, a PhilHealth executive has confirmed.
PhilHealth Vice President for Corporate Affairs Dr. Shirley Domingo, during the Laging Handa public briefing, said they had released the funds through the debit-credit payment program to around 206 health institutions.
Domingo said PhilHealth had paid out 79 percent of the total claims, whether COVID or non-COVID.
She said PhilHealth had paid the Philippine Red Cross around P5.5 billion for COVID-19 test claims.
Domingo also said PhilHealth was open to a proposal of a technical working group meeting between PhilHealth and hospitals that would handle the processing of the state health insurer claims, following some data discrepancies.
“Not all claims that we are receiving are paid immediately, as we thoroughly investigate the processing because we are using people’s money,” Domingo said.
“In some cases, we returned some requests to hospitals because of several documentary deficiencies, and some claims were denied because of possible fraud. All of those can contribute to the difference in numbers or amounts of claims that were said to be our debts. It is important is to reconcile our data, which is what our regions are now doing,” Domingo said.
PhilHealth also assured the public that it had enough funds to cover the unpaid claims it owes to hospitals amid complaints that PhilHealth’s obligations are heaping up to billions of pesos.
“The corporation hopes that the decision of the Ombudsman is accepted and we move on from there,” Domingo said.
Domingo was referring to the Office of the Ombudsman’s dismissal of the criminal and administrative complaints filed against former and current PhilHealth executives over their supposed retaliation on fellow officers.
