Palace says DOH has enough funds to settle claims of private hospitals 

Malacañang on Monday guaranteed that the Department of Health (DOH) has sufficient funds to settle the claims of private hospitals for services and treatments provided to indigent patients.

At a press briefing, Palace Press Officer Claire Castro clarified reports that some health facilities have stopped accepting government guarantee letters covering the hospital bills of patients who have no financial capacity to pay.

She said that 39 hospitals in Batangas are facing issues with guarantee letters due to incomplete or missing documentation.

“Hindi naman po nagkakaproblema ang gobyerno patungkol po sa pagbabayad ng mga bills po ng ating mga kababayan na covered po ng guarantee letters,” Castro said.

(The government does not encounter problems in settling bills for Filipinos who are covered with guarantee letters.)

“Dito lamang po sa 39 hospitals na kinakailangan po ng DOH iyong ibang mga dokumento para po sila’y mabayaran. So doon po sa maniningil na mga hospitals, kumpletuhin lang po iyong inyong mga dokumento dahil po ang DOH ang sinasabi sa atin ay may sapat na pondo,” Castro explained.

(In these 39 hospitals, the DOH needs documents so they can get paid. So for those hospitals, just complete the documents needed by the DOH because the latter is saying that it has enough funds.)

She noted that under the Universal Health Care Act and a memorandum of agreement (MOA) between the DOH and private hospitals, the latter are required to allocate 10 percent of their authorized bed capacity for poor patients.

She said indigent patients are entitled to zero hospital billing through the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth).

Castro added that they could also visit DOH hospitals without the need for guarantee letters from government officials.—LDF, GMA