Gordon: PhilHealth paid P800M of its debt to Red Cross but incurs new expenses

The Philippine Red Cross (PRC) has so far received a total of P800 million from the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) as payment for the latter's outstanding balance of P1.1 billion for COVID-19 tests, its chairperson Senator Richard Gordon said on Wednesday.

Gordon said that aside from the P500 million that the state health insurer initially paid last month, it has settled P300 million more on a staggered basis.

"Ngayon, nagbabayad sila. Nakatatlong bayad na sila ng P100 million. So P800 million na ang naibayad nila... Pero diba nag-test kami ulit noong October 24, siyempre dumadagdag 'yang mga test na 'yan," he said at a virtual Kapihan sa Manila Bay.

In mid-October, the PRC halted conducting COVID-19 tests that are chargeable to PhilHealth due to the latter's growing debt.

Almost two weeks later, PhilHealth settled half of its obligations to the humanitarian organization.

This prompted PRC to resume its COVID-19 testing for those covered by the state health insurer.

President Rodrigo Duterte described the PRC as "mukhang pera" after the incident but Gordon believes the Chief executive was just misled. -MDM, GMA News