BACOLOD City – The Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) denied it owes the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital (CLMMRH) P134,607,154.94 in unpaid claims.
In a letter dated Aug. 3 to Cong. Greg Gasataya, PhilHealth regional vice president Valerie Anne Hollero said the CLMMRH was probably referring to the “returned to hospital” claims from 2018 to 2020.
“The total unpaid claims by PhilHealth to CLMMRH as of July 2020 is only in the amount of P21,829,936,” she clarified.
Hollero explained that a total of 22,089 claims were returned to CLMMRH with the total amount of P306,468,442,29.
Of the total amount, she said, only 3,451 in the amount of P46, 609,364.29 have been re-filed by CLMMRH and there are still 18,638 claims in the amount of P259,859,078,
The CLMMRH, according to Hollero, is also the only hospital in Region 6 that submits claims manually, thus a longer turnaround time is needed for the payment.
To recall, Gatasaya wrote a letter dated July 27 to PhilHealth president and chief executive officer Ricardo Morales urging the state-run health insurance agency to settle the unpaid claims of CLMMRH.
Gasataya claimed the hospital “badly” needed the money to sustain its daily expenses amid the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.
The congressman said, as published by this newspaper on July 31, it was medical chief Julius Drilon who told him that PhilHealth’s unpaid claims as of June 30 were supposedly intended for the procurement of supplies like extraction kits, test kits and personal protective equipment for the hospital’s molecular laboratory.
CLMMRH is the only tertiary government hospital in Negros Occidental./PN
