BACOLOD City – A group of patients called on President Rodrigo Duterte to let the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. accredit the hospital where they were seeking treatment.
The Negrense Dialysis Group warned that the non-accreditation of the Bacolod Our Lady of Mercy Specialty Hospital will displace patients, including 231 undergoing dialysis.
“We are content, confident and relying so much on the expertise and reasonable prices that this hospital is charging poor patients like us who are all [PhilHealth] members,” Negrense Dialysis Group president Gregorio Gustilo Jr. wrote Duterte on June 20.
PhilHealth denied the hospital’s application for accreditation due to a case the agency filed against its previous owner, Tiong Bi, Inc., Gustilo said.
The hospital is currently being managed by the Negros Health Management System, Inc. (NHMSI).
The NHMSI is “distinct and separate” from Tiong Bi, Inc., said Gustilo.
PhilHealth – Western Visayas suspended the accreditation of the hospital effective March 2018, local media reports said.
In light of this, the Department of Health gave the Bacolod Our Lady of Mercy Specialty Hospital until Dec. 31 this year to operate as a Level 2, 200-bed health facility.
The suspension was in connection with the alleged padding of PhilHealth claims on cataract operation in 2007.
Aside from the displacement of patients, its non-accreditation will cost the hospital “huge losses,” said Gustilo.
The Negrense Dialysis Group asked Duterte to convince PhilHealth to reconsider its decision, let the hospital continue to operate, and pay its P25-million dues to the hospital from March to May this year.
The Bacolod Our Lady of Mercy Specialty Hospital is a “hospital for the poor,” Gustilo said.
Its closure will make the city and Negros Occidental “suffer,” especially with the upcoming dengue-fever season, he said.
“You are our only hope, Mr. President, because we know that you are a pro-poor and would do everything to help us,” Gustilo said./PN
