Private hospitals struggle due to PhilHealth failure to pay arrears

Private hospitals in the country were struggling to respond to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic as they were running out of funds due to the failure of state-run Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) to pay its arrears.

This was alleged by University of the Philippines Executive Vice President Teodoro Herbosa in a Facebook post.

“The other reason private hospitals are tapping out is that PhilHealth hasn’t pay last year's arrears. PhilHealth should release those payments to services already rendered. Bakit iniipit?” Herbosa asked.

“I discovered one of the private hospitals has [P]500 million in collectibles with PhilHealth,” he added.

Asked to comment, Private Hospitals Association of the Philippines Inc. (PHAPI) President Rustico Jimenez confirmed that PhilHealth had not been paying hospitals’ claims on time.

“Totoo ‘yan, PHIC (PhilHealth) [is] not paying ON TIME,” Jimenez said in a text message.

The PHAPI chief added that the state health insurer had around P4 billion to P5 billion in payables to private hospitals.

Herbosa said PhilHealth should start paying even 50% of its arrears to hospitals “on the condition that they continue serving the public whether just a PUI or confirmed COVID 19.”

Sought for comment, PhilHealth Vice President for Corporate Affairs Gigi Domingo said the state health insurer had made available P30 billion in financial assistance to respond to the COVID-19 threat.

“The amount they can avail is three months’ worth of total claims last year. This will address their current needs in providing quality care to all Filipinos in need of hospital services during this COVID pandemic,” Domingo said.

PhilHealth said the release of P30 billion utilizes its interim reimbursement mechanism (IRM) which will provide health care providers with 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. — DVM, GMA News