PhilHealth Warns Hospitals Who Ask Payments from Patients

The Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) has issued a stern warning to penalize private hospital facilities in time they will ask payments from any Philhealth-member patients.

Philheatlh chief executive officer (CEO) Atty. Alex Padilla said that they can issue suspension order or revocation of the accreditation papers of any private hospitals who will violate this warning.

Padilla’s warning came in response to the statement made by Dr. Rustico Jimenez, chief of the Private Hospital Association of the Philippines (PHAP) regarding their plans to ask payments from patients who are PhilHealth members due to the unpaid hospital bills of Philhealth.

Jimenez said that some of the PHAP -member hospitals, whom Philhealth owed millions of pesos for hospital bills, have continuously begging him help press Philhealth regarding this matter. This is the reason why Jimenez has contemplated to let the Philhealth-member patients to pay their hospital bills.

But Padilla, in reaction to the plan of PHAP chief, said that Philhealth has no intention so far not to pay its obligations to the private hospitals, citing the delay in the releasing the amounts to be paid to any private hospitals who served the Philhealth member patients.

Padilla explained that a little problem cropped up when their payment scheme was changed which also affected the whole system of releasing cash. He said this is the reason why the agency has failed to immediately settle its hospital obligations.

The Philhealth chief however promised to pay all hospital bills before the end of July 2014. He said he wanted to preserve and protect the benefits of their members that is why he issued the warning.