BACOLOD CITY – The Philippine Health Insurance Corporation – Region VI, during the press conference over-the-weekend, urged local pharmacies within Bacolod City to get accreditation to become a medicine provider under the Guaranteed and Accessible Medications for Outpatient Treatment (GAMOT) program.
PhilHealth GAMOT is a program providing essential outpatient medicines for free to eligible Filipino members, covering a wide range of common treatments like those for diabetes, asthma, high blood pressure, and infections.
To avail, a member must register for PhilHealth’s Yaman ng Kalusugan Program (YAKAP), get a prescription from an accredited physician, and claim the medicines at a designated GAMOT facility or partner pharmacy, using the prescription. Under the GAMOT package, a member can avail at least 75 kinds of medicine covered by the program.
“We encouraged, and we are hoping that there will be FDA (Food and Drug Administration)-approved pharmacies to send their application,” said PhilHealth Region VI Medical Specialist Dr. Mary Ellen Grace Bolido.
Bacolod Local Health Insurance Officer (LHIO) Head Edgar N. Yocariza disclosed during the conference that as of the moment there are no pharmacies within the city that had been accredited to be a GAMOT provider. However, some have passed their applications, but they are currently in process.
Moreover, Bolido said that being a provider for PhilHealth’s members is beneficial for the accredited pharmacies since PhilHealth itself will pay for all the 75 medicines under the program, acquired by the patients.
“So being an FDA-approved pharmacy, you can engage with PhilHealth and apply for accreditation for you to be able to provide benefits that are part of the GAMOT package. PhilHealth will have direct payment with accredited pharmacies,” she stated, encouraging all pharmacies in Region VI.
Bolido said that in order to apply for accreditation, a pharmacy must be FDA approved and must submit a self-assessment tool and other necessary documents required by PhilHealth.
“More sales for them because the patients will find pharmacies where they can avail medicine for free,” she said as she encouraged the accredited providers.
With the newly launched YAKAP program of PhilHealth, or the expanded KONSULTA program, members can now register to avail the program, and its benefits include free consultations, free cancer screening tests, free laboratory examinations, and free medicine covered by the GAMOT package.
Under YAKAP, each registered member will have P20,000 per year that will cover the said benefits, and those benefits will be available only through YAKAP-accredited health care facilities.
As of now, there were 49 accredited YAKAP facilities in Negros Occidental, including the three facilities in Bacolod City, including the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital, Bacolod City Health Office, and Medisense, a private clinic. (Richard Caballero Jr. via tvds)