Board member claims flagging billions worth of 'manipulations' in PhilHealth financial statements

Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) board member Alejandro Cabading on Tuesday flagged billions of pesos in supposed discrepancies in the financial statement of the health insurer, which he said were manipulations.

In a Senate hearing, Cabading presented several examples of manipulations in the financial position of the health insurer, specifically on the cash flows for 2019.

Citing data from the PhilHealth, Cabading said the premium receivables at the beginning of 2019 were recorded at P20.082 billion, with additional premium contributions for the year at P146.435 billion, bringing the total premium contributions to P166.517 billion.

Deducting the premium receivables at the end of the year of P9.178 billion, Cabading said the premium contributions collected should have been reported at P157.339 billion.

However, PhilHealth reported premium contributions collected amounting to P151.543 billion, reflecting a variance of P5.795 billion.

"What I'm saying here, dapat itong P5.7 (billion) as a normal computation, hindi 'yan dapat mag-appear kung 'yung financial statements are not manipulated," said Cabading.

"The term I'm using though is 'manipulated.' As a result, the financial statement would [be rendered] unreliable. This is very dangerous because financial statements are the basis of the board for actions on the ensuing year, whether or not we could fund whatever projects we have," he elaborated.

Cabading in the same hearing presented several other supposed manipulations on the financial statement of the state insurer on benefit claims.

"'Pag dito ka nagkakamali, masyadong delikado ito because this one could be easily manipulated because pera ito," said Cabading.

According to the Commission on Audit (COA), five audits are ongoing involving issues hounding the PhilHealth, in cooperation with several government agencies such as the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and the Insurance Commission (IC).

Under its mandate, PhilHealth is tasked to administer the National Health Insurance Program which aims to provide health insurance coverage and ensure affordable, acceptable, available and accessible health care services for all citizens of the Philippines.

PhilHealth and its officials are under investigation over the agency's alleged overpriced purchase of an information technology system worth over P2 billion.

In the previous Senate hearing, resigned anti-fraud officer Thorsson Montes Keith claimed that the PhilHealth "mafia," composed of the executive committee, stole some P15 billion through fraudulent schemes.

PhilHealth, in a statement, has since denied such claims. -MDM, GMA News