Pullout of private hospitals from PhilHealth not true – Sen. Go

The Senate health committee asked yesterday the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) and the Private Hospitals Association of the Philippines (PHAP) to sit down and find a common ground on the threat of PHAP members to unilaterally withdraw their accreditation from PhilHealth.

The reason put forward by PHAP is that PhilHealth has yet to reimburse its members of their expenses in the hundreds of millions of pesos in attending to the medical problems of PhilHealth members.

Senator Christopher Lawrence "Bong" Go, committee chairman, said failure of the two groups to settle their differences might force him to call them to appear before the committee and explain their sides in a public hearing.

Go said he had called PhilHealth President retired General Ricardo Morales to settle the financial claims of private hospitals.

“Sabi nya aasikasuhin nila ang claims. Wala pong katotohanan na magpupull-out ang private hospitals. And last month ako ang nag arrange ng meeting between Rustico Jimenez ((PHAP president) and General Morales at nagkasundo na aayusin ang dapat ayusin, babayaran ang dapat bayaran (Morales said he would settle the payment claims of hospitals. There is no truth to reports that PHAP members would pull out of PhilHealth),” Go said. “Kung kelangan sila ipatawag at ipatatawag ko sila to address this, importante walang fraudulent claims, ghost claims, at ayaw natin may masayang na pera (If there are grounds for my committee to conduct a public hearing, I will. What is important is that there should be no fraudulent claims, ghost claims because we don’t want the people’s money go to waste),’’ he added.

Go said patients cannot wait for the dispute to be settled.

“Ako na mismo nananawagan sa PhilHealth officials at private hospitals, di makakaantay ang mga pasyente. Importante po yan (I am asking PhilHealth and the private hospitals to resolve the reimbursement issues. Patients cannot wait, that is important),” he added.

Go said he is willing to be the middleman of PhilHealth and PHAP.

As the Senate is scheduled to resume regular session on November 4, Go said he is completing his committee report on the proposed 2020 budget of the Department of Health (DOH).