PhilHealth liquidated only 6.8% of P14.7B advance payment to hospitals for COVID-19

State insurer Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) has liquidated only 6.8% or P1 billion of the P14.7 billion advance payments that it granted to hospitals amid the COVID-19 pandemic, a situation in violation of Commission on Audit (COA) regulation.

COA's Director 4 Cleotilde Tuazon made the testimony on Tuesday during the resumption of the Senate inquiry on alleged corruption in PhilHealth.

“We informed him (PhilHealth President Ricardo Morales) that as much as possible, this [P14.7 billion] should be liquidated already so that they would know the actual balance of this fund given to the regions. But as it is, around P1 billion pa lang ang nali-liquidate,” Tuazon said.

“But this [liquidation of P1 billion out of the P14.7 billion] does not mean that only P1 billion has been expended. There is no liquidation yet so they do not know how much of the amount has been actually spent,” Tuazon added. 

Given the COVID-19 pandemic, COA said that the P14.7 billion of advance payment under PhilHealth’s Interim Reimbursement Mechanism (IRM) should have been liquidated a long time ago since it was released way back on April 6. 

“It (liquidation of the P14.7 billion) is actually overdue kasi ang regulation ng COA is 60 days [lang from release dapat ay liquidated na]. But according to them, they were given 120 days, or whenever 80% of the amount given to them has been spent. That is why we suggested for PhilHealth  to fast-track or facilitate iyong liquidation. For those regions which do not have many COVID-19 cases, they should pull out those balances and give it to regions na talagang maraming COVID-19 cases," Tuazon pointed out.

“Kasi it would be unfair naman na ang laki-laki ng pera ng isang region, wala naman po siya masyadang COVID-19 cases and then there are regions na marami silang COVID-19 patients pero wala naman silang enough funds for that,” Tuazon added.

Earlier in the hearing, PhilHealth records revealed that Davao City-based Southern Philippines Medical Center got the highest amount of IRM from PhilHealth with P326 million. It got more funds than the UP-Philippine General Hospital based in the National Capital Region where over 75,000 of the COVID-19 cases in the country are recorded.

Davao City, which is part of the Davao Region, is the hometown of President Rodrigo Duterte.

During the previous Senate inquiry, PhilHealth’s former anti-fraud legal officer Thorrsson Montes Keith accused PhilHealth’s senior officials of pocketing P15 billion through several fraudulent schemes, including the IRM, cash advances and the continuous procurement of IT equipment the agency already has.

These allegations have since been denied by PhilHealth officials. —KG, GMA News