PhilHealth unveils P30B assistance to hospitals to combat COVID-19

The Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) is launching an initial P30 billion financial assistance to accredited hospitals that need adequate liquidity to respond to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) threat in the country.

In an interview on Dobol B sa News TV Wednesday, PhilHealth president and CEO Ricardo Morales said hospitals can avail of the financial assistance by submitting a letter of intent to the agency.

Morales said PhilHealth will use a hospital’s three months’ worth of claims as basis on how much it can avail.

“Average of three months na kung magkano binabayad namin sa kanila ‘yan ang magiging basehan kung magkano ang makukuha nila,” he said.

The PhilHealth chief also noted that even hospitals facing sanctions for various violations of their contracts can avail of the program.

“Calamity tayo ngayon at kailangan magtulungan... so i-suspend muna ang proceeding, importante magkaroon sila ng serbisyo,” Morales said.

In a separate press statement, PhilHealth said the release of P30 billion utilizes its interim reimbursement mechanism (IRM) which will provide health care providers with the much needed liquidity to adequately respond to the pandemic.

The arrangement is also part of PhilHealth’s efforts to reduce return-to-hospital payables filed in 2019 and earlier, and to further increase payments to hospitals, the agency said.

The state health insurer said it will also provide its members and service partners with additional relief in view of the declaration of a state of public health emergency in the country by extending the deadline of payment of contributions for its self-paying direct contributors.

They can now pay their first quarter contributions on or before April 30, 2020 instead of March 31, 2020 without interest.

Moreover, its policy on single period of confinement and 45-days coverage are also waived in favor of the member, while the filing period for claims is also extended from the usual 60 days to at least 120 days in favor of the health care providers.—AOL, GMA News