SEN. Juan Edgardo Angara prodded the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) over the weekend to settle its unpaid obligations, particularly to private hospitals, “amounting to billions of pesos” over time.
Citing the increasing unsettled subsidies provided to PhilHealth—from P71.3 billion in 2021 to P79.9 billion in 2022, the lawmaker lamented this was ‘In spite of complaints lodged against PhilHealth for its delayed reimbursements of claims by the hospitals.
Angara reminded the agency that the increase in subsidies was necessary to ensure that all Filipinos are covered by health insurance under the Universal Health Care Law.
He underscored that “universal health care already a problem to fund even before the pandemic, so we should aim to increase that funding over time to cover the entire country.’”
Angara advised PhilHealth “should act faster in processing the claims of the hospitals, which he recalled was “at one point pegged at around P20 billion.”
“The delays in the settlement of the claims has led to fears of possible downscaling of operations of the affected hospitals and even closures depending on their financial health,” the senator said over the weekend.
Angara recalled that recently, “many of these private hospitals have also aired their intention to end their partnership with PhilHealth because of the delayed payment of claims.”
The lawmaker lamented that “in the end, all of these issues, if not addressed, will adversely affect the patients, particularly the less fortunate who will have fewer options for their health-care requirements.”