Maxicare eyes 1M healthcare client base by 2013

(Updated 11:27 p.m) Only three million of the estimated 101 million Filipinos are covered by healthcare management organizations or HMO, the president of a leading HMO told GMA News Online in an interview Tuesday.   As such, Maxicare Healthcare Corp. intends to widen its client base to 1 million by 2013 from 900,000 so far this year, said Maxicare president Jose Pastor Puno.   "Still a lot of people are not covered,” Puno noted.   Maxicare, the country's leading healthcare management organization, is expects to earning to reach P135 million at the end of 2012.   Puno said the company earned P104 million in 2011, which was short of its P120-million target. In 2010, Maxicare earned P64 million, also lower than that year’s target of P80 million.   The low number of Filipinos covered by the HMO industry is mainly because of the perception that healthcare management is a cost, Puno noted.   "Health care is supposed to be a manpower cost… companies will have to shoulder," said Puno.   Maxicare also offers affordable services so that even small and medium enterprises (SME) can buy healthcare, Armi Malaluan, Maxicare vice president for sales and marketing, told GMA News Online.   "Maxicare is a premium brand. But there is this misperception that you couldn't afford it. That's why we think of innovative products and services to cater to different market segments," added Malaluan.   The sales vice president said Maxicare is breaking the "misperception that (HMO) is only entitled to the big corporations" now that the HMO offers with its health services to SMEs.   Maxicare caters to the healthcare of employees and executives of top corporations and small and medium scale enterprises. —Marc Cayabyab/VS, GMA News