Capitol Provides PhilHealth Coverage To 23,776 Individuals

Living up to its duty in providing means for free medical care to indigent and poor patients, the Cebu Provincial Government has enrolled at least 23, 776 individuals to PhilHealth program in 2015.

Of the total number of recipients, 3,844 are indigents who availed of the Point of Care (POC) program while other beneficiaries come from low-income individuals. These low-income individuals include punong barangays, barangay kagawads, barangay treasurers as well as secretaries, tanods, health workers, day-care personnel, nutrition scholars, animal health-aid staff and members of the Lupong Tagapamayapa.

The Capitol has shelled out at least P57 million for the entire membership coverage.

Other individuals with no visible means of income were also provided with health insurance coverage by the national government through the Social Welfare Department under the Modified Conditional Cash Transfer Program and National House Hold Targeting System for Poverty Reduction.

A universal and free medical care, including the poorest of the poor, is on top of the health agenda of President Benigno Aquino’s administration.

In response, the administration of Gov. Hilario Davide III and Vice Gov. Agnes Magpale has implemented the POC, which provides an automatic enrollment of indigent patients upon admission.

The Provincial Health Office (PHO) stationed a medical social worker in every district and provincial hospital to ensure that indigent patients will be enrolled in the program.

Driven by the principles of good governance, transparency and sound fiscal policy, the Davide-Magpale administration has succeeded in upgrading four of the 16 province-run hospitals to Level 1.

Revenue collected from these medical facilities is utilized by the Capitol to expand its health care services, improve medical infrastructures and purchase more equipment.

Unlike in the past, these four provincial hospitals can now perform surgery, among others after beefing up their facilities with a surgery room, isolation, surgical and maternity facilities, dental clinics, secondary clinical laboratory, blood station, first level X-ray, and a pharmacy.

FREE MEDICAL CARE FOR CHILDREN

Aside from the POC, the Capitol also approved an ordinance in June last year granting free medical care to children aged 0 to six years old whose parents are indigents.

The 2015 financial reports of the 16 province-owned hospitals show that PhilHealth owns the lion’s share of the gross income of the medical facilities to the tune of P165.4 million or 77.71% of the P212.8 million total revenue collection.

While much has been done, the Provincial Government, under the helm of Gov. Davide and Vice Governor Magpale, continues to work on the improvement of the hospitals’ overall service in terms of personnel, infrastructure and repairs, among others.

By Kelvin Cañizares

www.cebu.gov.ph