PhilHealth debt to PRC for COVID-19 tests down to P399M —Gordon

The debt of Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PHilHealth) to Philippine Red Cross for the cost of COVID-19 tests is now down to P399 million, PRC chairman and Senator Richard Gordon said Friday.

“Nakabayad sila nang malaki nung nakaraan…Kung gusto naman, maraming paraan. Nakabayad sila from P800 million plus naging P399 million ngayon ang utang. Nakabayad sila ng P400 million,” Gordon said during Laging Handa briefing.

(They have paid a huge amount last time. From P800 million, their debt is now at P399 million. They paid us P400 million.)

The PRC chairman, however, maintained his appeal to the state health insurer to regularly pay its debt so that they can sustain their operations.

“Pero araw-araw syempre nagte-test tayo, dumadami ang tests, kahapon nag test kami ng 10,000, siyempre tataas na naman 'yan. So dapat 'wag na natin palakihin para hindi naaalanganin,” he said.

(We are still testing every day. Just yesterday, we tested 10,000 people. Of course, their payments will increase again. So let us not wait for the debt to balloon again so that our operations will continue.)

Gordon earlier aired his frustrations on PhilHealth for not being prompt in its payment to the PRC.

He also warned of stopping the operations of PRC testing centers if the state insurance firm will not pay up its debt.

Back in October last year, PRC halted conducting COVID-19 tests chargeable to PhilHealth after the latter failed to settle its outstanding balance amounting to nearly P1 billion.

PRC has since resumed testing after PhilHealth settled half of the balance.—AOL, GMA News