MANILA – Former Department of Health secretary Janette Garin claimed there were more “ghost treatments” paid by Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth).
Garin on Wednesday said some PhilHealth doctors and officials were taking P16,000 to P32,000 worth of fund to pay for the treatments of alleged ghost patients.
“‘Yung mga wala naman talagang totoong sakit, gagawan ng papel. Marami po ang hinahakot lalagyan ng report na may sakit kokolektahin sa PhilHealth,” Garin said.
“Pero ang totoo niyan hinahakot sila, pinakain, binigyan ng pamasahe and people will be happy nabigyan ng 500 pero sinisingil ng hospital, ng kasabwat na doctor at opisyales sa loob ‘yung PhilHealth ng let’s say P16,000 and sometimes even P32,000,” she added.
Garin said PhilHealth was also funding treatments of alleged fake cataract surgeries in 2006 and the treatments of “ghost” patients for pneumonia and dengue.
“In 2006, when I exposed what we discovered in Region 6, maraming cataract surgeries. May mga namatay unfortunately maraming papel na we demanded from PhilHealth at tila nawawala,” Garin said.
President Rodrigo Duterte on Saturday said he will “reorganize” the government health insurance firm as he noted the loss of some P100 billion was “totally, totally unacceptable.”
Corruption allegations against PhilHealth surfaced after a former employee of a dialysis center in Quezon City came forward to reveal a “ghost dialysis” scheme used to make fraudulent claims to the agency. /PN
