PhilHealth studying possible addition of saliva testing for COVID-19 to benefit package — Gierran

The Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) is looking into the possibility of including the saliva test as part of its COVID-19 benefit package, its president Dante Gierran said Tuesday.

Gierran said the PhilHealth Board would meet on Wednesday to discuss the matter.

“Mayroon nang study ginawa ng ating mga kasama dito sa PhilHealth and welcome for us itong saliva testing because it’s less intrusive,” he said at a Palace news conference.

“And [in] our studies, [in] our recommendation even pricing will be tossed to the meeting we will be having tomorrow with the board of directors.”

The Philippine Red Cross (PRC) earlier said it cannot charge saliva tests to PhilHealth because the state health insurer has yet to formulate a benefit package.

The PRC aims to make the COVID-19 saliva test available in all its laboratories nationwide by February 1.

The test is priced at P2,000 each, cheaper than the RT-PCR test. — Virgil Lopez/RSJ, GMA News