ILOILO City – Mayor Jerry Treñas is seeking the help of the National Task Force Against COVID-19 chief implementer, Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. regarding the payables of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) to private hospitals here and the city government.
Treñas said they had a meeting on May 10 with PhilHealth, Department of Health (DOH) and private hospitals but “waay sila (PhilHealth) commitment (as to when to pay).”
“Kay ang gina usar nila nga portal iya sang DOH… Gareklamo sila nga waay nagasulod sa ila. Ang DOH ara man kahapon sa meeting so daw waay man ‘to sila solusyon,” Treñas told city hall reporters.
“Ipasulod naman kuno…our hospitals are exasperated na, hopefully may ara sila solusyon sini,” he added.
Treñas said another meeting will be conducted on Friday to hopefully resolve the issue.
The city mayor noted that for the city government alone, particularly payables to the city’s molecular laboratory, PhilHealth owes around P53 million as of March this year.
As to the private hospitals, he said it is being consolidated yet.
Aside from Galvez, Treñas is also writing PhilHealth president Dante Gierran.
In an earlier interview, Treñas failed to contain his frustration.
“If you want me to be presidential about this, p*tang ina ninyo. Indi na manami ang gina-obra nila sa aton,” he said in an interview over DYOK Aksyon Radyo Iloilo.
To recall, in August last year, Treñas called out PhilHealth for being very slow in releasing reimbursements to nine hospitals amounting to a total of P521.08 million.
In a letter to Atty. Valerie Anne Hollero, PhilHealth regional vice president for Western Visayas, Treñas urged the state health insurer to pay the hospitals promptly so their operation won’t be hampered.
Ilonggo senator Franklin Drilon, too, pressed for the speedy release of hospitals’ reimbursement claims.
According to Drilon, “most or almost all” of Region 6’s 33 hospital claims had been filed by April 8, 2020 yet.
“Ang sistema sa loob ng PhilHealth ang dapat baguhin. Ayusin nila (para sa) mabilis na pag-reimburse ng claims,” said Drilon.
The Senate is particularly keen on PhilHealth’s implementation of the Interim Reimbursement Mechanism (IRM) scheme which turned out to be a cash advance program for hospitals and clinics directly hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Lawmakers, however, noted how the IRM was abused and became a source of politicking and corruption in the agency.
“‘Yung mga hospitals hirap na, marami silang serbsiyo na nagawa na at humihingi ng reimbursement. Kung aayusin ang sistema at kaagad na maproseso itong mga claims, hindi kailangan itong IRM o cash advances na ginagawa nila,” said Drilon./PN
