PhilHealth pays P500M of its P1B debt to Red Cross

The Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) on Tuesday announced it is settling half of its P1-billion debt to the Philippine Red Cross (PRC) for the cost of COVID-19 tests conducted by humanitarian organization.

The state insurer said it had already released P500 million as partial payment to the PRC.

The agency said it will expedite processing of the remaining balance while following strict compliance to government accounting rules and regulations.

PhilHealth owes the PRC over P930 million for the COVID-19 tests it conducted.

"PhilHealth takes exception to the insinuation that it is reckless and is playing on people’s lives. Its prudence in taking charge of its members’ hard-earned contributions is central to the state health insurer,” PhiHealth president and CEO Dante Gierran said.

“Its exercise of judiciousness is to protect the people and their funds,” Gierran said.

The state insurer’s announcement came after OCTA research group said that impasse between PhilHealth and the PRC caused a 40- to 50-percent drop in reported COVID-19 cases in Metro Manila, Cavite, Laguna and Batangas.

In a briefing on Tuesday night, Senator Richard Gordon, who chairs PRC, said that the Red Cross would resume part of its testing operations that same night, with full operations to resume on Wednesday.

“Tonight, I have requested the secretary-general and all our laboratories throughout the entire country to open to PhilHealth again. And we are going to have what you might call testing tonight from the Manila International Airport muna, tonight,” Gordon said .

“’Yan naman ang pangako ko, eh. Pag nag-simula kunin na kaagad lahat ng test gagawin namin. ‘Yung gusto nila ibigay. Kung ayaw na kami bigyan wala kami magagawa, but we are ready to test,” he added.

“And tomorrow, regular testing will be conducted in full. We are ready to test all the people that we have not tested. ‘Yung mga nasa hotel ngayon, ipadala na nila, te-testinging namin kagaad ‘yan. Kaya namin i-test ‘yan and I have no doubt,” Gordon said.

The senator had earlier lamented that PhilHealth had not released any payment to the PRC as of Tuesday afternoon despite its previous commitment to do so on Monday.

He said the debt has already reached P1.1 billion.

The senator said the delay in payment put a chartered flight of the PRC to China for the procurement of COVID-19 test kits on hold.

The humanitarian organization has processed more than 943,000 out of the over two million COVID-19 tests conducted in Metro Manila alone, Gordon said.

Gierran had said the state insurer would not pay its debt until all legal issues regarding their memorandum of agreement (MOA) were settled.

The state insurer’s refusal to settle its obligation to the Red Cross for the COVID-19 tests it conducted resulted in the stranding of thousands of overseas Filipino workers, since the humanitarian organization stopped conducting tests.

Under the MOA, PhilHealth reportedly made an advance payment of P100 million to the PRC for COVID-19 testing services, despite Philippine laws mandating reimbursements instead.

On Monday, President Rodrigo Duterte vowed to pay off PhilHealth's P930-million debt to the Red Cross.

The Red Cross conducts 30% of the total COVID-19 tests performed nationwide.

The organization accounted for over 1 million of the 4.3 million tests conducted as of October 18, data from the Department of Health show.

The PhilHealth said it also recognizes and assures the accredited laboratories conducting the current OFW RT-PCR tests that it will expedite the processing of its payments upon submission of complete documentary requirements.—AOL/BM, GMA News