ILOILO City – The Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) owes nine hospitals and the Uswag Molecular Laboratory here P860,493,324.85 in unpaid claims.
The state health insurer’s prolonged inaction may “foreseeably result in the collapse” of the healthcare system in Region 6, warned an alarmed Mayor Jerry Treñas.
The hospitals and their unpaid PhilHealth claims are the following:
* The Medical City Iloilo – P74.444 million
* West Visayas State University Medical Center – P36. 569 million
* Metro Iloilo Hospital and Medical Center – P78.013 million
* QualiMed Hospital – P30.393 million
* Iloilo Doctor’s Hospital – P38.265 million
* St. Paul’s Hospital Iloilo – P100.870 million
* Western Visayas Medical Center – P349.723 million
* Iloilo Mission Hospital – P99.645 million
The Medicus Medical Center also has unpaid claims with PhilHealth while the city government-run Uswag Molecular Laboratory has P53.572 million.
“Our hospitals continuously suffer from losses brought about by (PhilHealth’s) indifference,” said Treñas.
He called for a virtual meeting today “to address the concerns related to the delayed settlement of charges and unjustified refusal of receiving and acknowledging the claims by PhilHealth-6.”
He already informed Health secretary and Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) chair Francisco Duque III about this, and so were chief implementer and vaccine czar Carlito G. Galvez Jr., Interior Secretary Eduardo Año; IATF co-chair, Karlo Alexei Nograles; and PhilHealth president and chief executive officer, Atty. Dante A. Gierran.
“More than an acceptable explanation from (PhilHealth), we demand answers and solutions as our hospitals continuously suffer from losses brought about by their indifference,” said Treñas.
“May we earnestly implore your favorable action and benevolence to our dear hospitals by exhausting concerted efforts to aid in the release of these valid claims. We must be reminded that these reimbursements serve as the life of these institutions fighting on the frontline,” Treñas told the national officials.
In his request to escalate the quarantine status of the city from modified general community quarantine status to modified enhanced community status, Treñas earlier lamented that most private hospitals here, despite being overwhelmed, are discouraged from increasing their bed capacities for COVID-19 patients due to late payments from the state health insurer.
“In series of dialogues with private hospitals, it has been frequently echoed that they had not been paid their COVID-19 claims since the start of the pandemic up to now. Ultimately, this major concern dissuades many hospitals, across the country, in participating and expanding their capability to manage COVID-19,” he shared./PN
