Extra P55M budget pushed for medical aid program

To serve more patients, an official from the City Hospitalization Assistance and Medicines Program (CHAMP) is asking an additional P55-million from the city government.

CHAMP head Amor Villanueva said the extra budget will be used to cover more beneficiaries.

The additional budget forms part of the proposed P299 million third supplemental budgets of the city. The requested additional P55 million budget of the CHAMP will cover the remaining months of 2018.

CHAMP recently expanded its program to cover more hospitals, including Cebu Doctors’ University Hospital, Saint Vincent Hospital, and Velez Hospital, and because of this, the number of patients and beneficiaries under the program has also surged.

During the budget hearing yesterday, Villanueva said they have already exhausted P98 million of the P116 million budget this year.

The expenditures cover the months of January until July and were used for the medical assistance and bills of some 10,058 beneficiaries confined in various hospitals.

Villanueva said the remaining P18 million is only good for the month of August.

For the month of January to July the total number of patient-beneficiaries confined at Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC) was 1,547, which incurred the amount of P7.5 million.

CHAMP shelled out P4.6 million for patients confined at Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC) for the same period.

Bulk of the fund, or about P85 million, was used to pay for the medical expenses of patients confined in private hospitals.

Villanueva said after the accreditation of private hospitals, the monthly amount incurred jumped to P18 million from P14 million.

Under CHAMP, qualified Cebu City residents and registered voters can get as much as P30,000 in medical assistance in the form of cash as long as the hospital they are confined in are accredited by the city government.

Minor patients are also eligible as long as their parent/s are registered voters of the city. As proof, a certification from the Commission on Election (COMELEC) or proof of billing is required to be submitted to CHAMP office.

Villanueva said they are also giving chances to those patients who are not voters and residents of the city through referring them directly to another program that can help in their medical and hospital expenses, such as the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office Cebu (PCSO), the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth), and the national government’s ‘’Malasakit Program.’’