Several private hospitals were forced to downsize operations due to delayed reimbursements from the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth).
Private Hospital Association of the Philippines (PHAPI) president Jose Rene De Grano said the Lipa Medix Medical Center was forced to downsize its bed capacity due to late payments from Philhealth.
From 150 beds, he said, it reduced capacity to 95 beds to minimize expenses.
He noted other hospitals also have to resort to reduced working hours and work-from-home to get by especially with the pandemic.
PHAPI has already repeatedly asked Philhealth from the prompt reimbursement, to no avail.
“They said the said hospitals had deficiencies [in requirements for reimbursement]. But even if hospitals address these they are still kept waiting,” De Grano said.
He said it takes Philhealth 60 days to answer if it will approve or disapprove their claims.
That waiting period could prove “debilitating” for some of PHAPI members since the amount of reimbursement Philhealth owes them is worth P6 billion.
“That was back last Dec. but this continues to increase,” De Grano said.
He noted the release of said amount is necessary especially as the country needs more bed space for Covid-19 patients.
While hospitals in general nationwide have 40 percent occupancy rate, 20 big medical facilities in Metro Manila are now in “critical level of occupancy” or have an 85 percent occupancy rate.
Another 23 hospitals in the region are “high risk” or have a 70 to 85 percent occupancy rate.
De Grano said they are now considering asking Congress or Malacañang to ask for the payment of the amount owed to them by PhilHealth to maintain the sustainability of the operations of affected PHAPI members.