PhilHealth to follow SC ruling on funds, says CEO

PhilHealth president and CEO Edwin Mercado said the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) will follow the Supreme Court's ruling regarding its budget.

Thus, Mercado said a day after Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonio Kho said the administration should return the P60 billion that PhiHealth remitted to the National Treasury in 2024. 

“Kami po ay kumbaga we will abide with whatever the decision of the Supreme Court. Kami ho ay naniniwala  na patas po ang proseso at ito po ay pinakikinggan ng talaga pong mga mahistradong sanay at bihasa dito sa ating mga batas. Kung ano man ang desisyon ng ating kataas-taasang hukuman, kami po ay maga-abide, kami po ay susunod,” he said in Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon. 

(We will abide by whatever the decision of the Supreme Court. We believe that the process will be fair and the judges are knowledgeable of the laws. Whatever will be the decision of the high court, we will just abide by it.) 

During the oral arguments, Kho also said it may be time to overhaul the board of PhilHealth over the utilization of its budget.

“Probably, it’s time to overhaul PhilHealth and change the board for not complying with what the law requires,” Kho said Tuesday. 

 Mercado, who was just appointed to lead the state health insurer last February 4, said that PhilHealth employees are being assessed regularly. 

“Nakikita ko naman po ang dedikasyon ng ating board members. Bagamat ganoon po, lahat naman po kami dito, maging ako man po, ay ina-assess nang regularly ang performance,” he said. 

(I saw the dedication of our board members. But I can assure you that our performances are being assessed regularly.) 

“Kami nga po ay nagse-set ng mga metrics kung saan masusukat namin yung amin pong kontribusyon sa organisasyon. Magiging plataporma ko po ay dapat metrics-driven tsaka po accountability.” 

(We set metrics to measure everyone’s contribution to the organization. So my platform will be on metric-driven assessment and accountability.) –NB, GMA Integrated News