Imee: PhilHealth should find a way to cover COVID-19 patients in tents

The Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) should find a way to cover COVID-19 patients who had to stay in tents as hospitals were filled beyond capacity, Senator Imee Marcos said Monday.

"They need to cover it. They just have to find a way," Marcos said in a virtual interview with reporters.

"Ngayon pa lang ay review na nila at baguhin yung mga so-called regulation na yan at cover na ang mga nasa tent kasi naghihirap nga nang doble-doble yung mga pasyenteng yan, tapos hindi pa ico-cover," she added.

(They should review and change their regulations and cover patients admitted in hospital tents. They are suffering as it is, and yet they will not be covered.)

The issue came up after PhilHealth Acting Senior Vice President Neri Santiago said during a House panel hearing that the coverage for tents was not included in the agency's policy or package

Bayan Muna party-list Representative Ferdinand Gaite also claimed that some COVID-19 patients who are staying in hospital tents while waiting to be admitted are being charged P1,000 per hour.

PhilHealth chief Dante Gierran later on clarified that persons admitted in accredited medical tents are covered by the in-patient COVID-19 packages if the services given them were part of the in-patient care.

Gierran also reiterated Santiago's clarification during the House panel hearing that “if the services given to patients in tents were part of in-patient care, then these should be covered by the current in-patient COVID-19 packages of the program, as opposed to stays in non-accredited Community Isolation Unit tents which are not compensable under existing rules.”

Apart from Marcos, six other senators also called on PhilHealth to cover patients admitted in hospital tents, saying that the state health insurer has a social and moral obligation to serve the needs of its members. — DVM, GMA News