Salceda files bill creating telemedicine, electronic health systems

Albay Representative Joey Salceda on Tuesday filed a measure seeking to establish telemedicine and electronic health systems in the country amid the increased need for health services during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Salceda filed House Bill 7422, or the proposed Philippine E-Health and Telemedicine Development Act of 2020, aiming to expand the telemedicine industry in the country and provide more health services to underserved sectors.

“Remote medicine services are essential, especially in the time of COVID-19. We’ve set aside medical services for other diseases because COVID-19 has overtaken all other health priorities," Salceda said in a statement following the filing of the measure.

"But many of these diseases we are neglecting are deadlier and more debilitating than the virus. So, we need alternatives to our traditional modes of healthcare delivery,” he added.

According to Salceda, the Philippines currently had no regulatory framework for telemedicine and electronic health systems.

While some telemedicine facilities have established operations in the country, most of them are business process outsourcing (BPO) whose services are only available to persons living abroad, he said.

“We have many cellphone users, and we have a strong BPO sector. Our health care system is weak. The path seems obvious to me: let’s use our strengths to improve our weaknesses," he added.

Salceda, in the explanatory note of his bill, also noted the "glaring" disparity in the access to health services among residents of various regions in the Philippines.

He cited 2016 figures from the Philippine Statistics Authority and the Department of Health which showed that NCR had 23.1 hospital beds per 100,000 people, while the rest of Luzon had 8.2, the Visayas had 7.8, and Mindanao had 8.3.

Moreover, he noted that in NCR, there were 10.6 doctors per 10,000 population, while the national average was at 3.9, and the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao only had 0.9.

“Clearly, doctors and medical professionals want to stay in places where there are greater economic opportunities. You can’t blame them. And our ‘doctors for the barrios’ programs rely on the voluntary spirit of individuals. That’s not a sustainable system," Salceda said.

"Of course, the long-term solution is to produce more doctors everywhere... But in the meantime, an obvious alternative is to link both patient and doctor without making them leave their physical location," he added.

Salceda's measure had the following main features:

• Establishes the components of electronic health systems;
• Identifies the structure for leadership and governance of the sector, identifying the Department of Health (DOH) as its primary regulator, and setting fundamental policies for coordination and governance of the sector;
• Enables and regulates eHealth services and solutions;
• Sets basic sector standards and mechanisms for interoperability with conventional and other modes of healthcare service delivery, by defining standards of eHealth systems and services, and promoting synergies between different modes;
• Sets mechanisms for policymaking, monitoring, and compliance, including the formulation of required policies, guidelines, and compliance mechanisms to support the attainment of the quality and acceptable eHealth systems and services. This would also make telehealth services accredited with Philhealth;
• Promotes and regulates the necessary health and supporting infrastructure;
• Lays the regulatory foundations for human resources in the eHealth system;
• Develops a framework for strategy and investment in the eHealth sector; and
• Identifies strategies for industry development, such as promoting the accreditation of eHealth with insurance providers, training medical and non-medical support personnel, and ensuring eligibility for industry-promoting incentives, among others.

Salceda also believed that improving the telemedicine systems in the country would prevent a repeat of the alleged irregularities at the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth), which were now being investigated by the Senate and the House of Representatives as well as by the executive branch.

“Telehealth is harder to defraud. You need to connive with more people, in an easily verifiable system, where anomalies can be identified with data analytics. If ever fraud happens in the telehealth system, we can more easily catch them,” he said.

Apart from proposing the measure, Salceda said he was also studying how to improve the PhilHealth's actuarial and reserve fund management.

This was after the state health insurer admitted in a Senate hearing that its funds were being depleted and its actuarial life was now reduced to one year amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We will file a report in the coming weeks. Maybe a few bills, as well,” Salceda said. — DVM, GMA News