PhilCare transforms HMO industry
PhilCare has arguably done more to make quality private health care inclusive and accessible than any other company in the Philippine HMO industry today. Through the company’s first pioneering introduction of prepaid health cards, to its evolution into the most technologically enabled HMO in the country, Jaeger Tanco has played a key role. Now as the new PhilCare president and chief executive officer, Tanco is taking a more hands on role in the company so that he can closely oversee some of the most ambitious projects yet for the company celebrating its 35th anniversary.
PhilCare’s current positioning is based largely on the Wellness Index, the first study of its kind commissioned by PhilCare in 2014. Two key insights were gained from the study: first, is that most Filipinos think they are healthier than they actually are; and second, most Filipinos don’t really watch what they eat. “It has become our goal then to help Filipinos not just feel healthy, but really be healthy, and the way to do that is wellness, which is most often the key to prevention,” Tanco said.
Fully committed to helping members achieve wellness, productivity, and ultimately longevity, PhilCare 360 was implemented. PhilCare 360 is an initiative that helps members achieve wellness though activities such as proper nutrition consultation, various multi-disciplinary workouts, stress management, and even help for those trying to quit smoking.
Even PhilCare’s initial pioneering prepaid card offerings were geared toward prevention. Ever mindful of one of PhilCare’s most important missions – to make healthcare more accessible – it was Tanco’s idea to introduce affordable prepaid health cards. The objective was to reach out to people who don’t have access to comprehensive health insurance and offer affordable packages that would allow them to address their health-care priorities.
Initially, the prepaid health card business was something no other HMO would have even considered. It was widely believed there was simply no money to be had in it. Today, the PhilCare prepaid card line is greatly expanded relative to the original offerings, and other HMOs have followed PhilCare’s lead and now offer their own prepaid cards.
“With the first prepaid cards, we only offered things like checkups and APE (annual physical exam),” Tanco said. “Now we offer other cards like the ER Vantage, which is specifically for emergencies. The ER Vantage card is a recent offering and a smart investment. The relatively low cost of an ER Vantage Card entitles the bearer to coverage that is far greater than the amount spent for a card. That is smarter health care,” he continues.
“Smarter health care is the second phase of our long term plan, still initiated by our first Wellness Index study,” Tanco said. In line with PhilCare’s objective to make health care smarter, this year, Tanco decided to be more directly involved in solidifying PhilCare’s stature as the most digitally enabled HMO in the country. “No matter how well we are, we never know what the future holds, and the reality is that getting sick eventually is inevitable,” he said.
“An HMO’s core responsibility is to provide health care when it is needed the most, and yet hospitals and HMOs follow so many strict protocols that, often, even getting emergency care is hampered by the need to go through layers of red tape,” Tanco said. “The goal of a more digitally enabled PhilCare will be to streamline archaic and obsolete protocols so that members get the health care they deserve when they need it most without the hassle,” he said. “This will be good for members because they will save so much time and energy, and good for employers because their employees don’t have to waste whole day of work every time they have to see a doctor.”
“Just as we did with the first Philippine Wellness Index before we rolled out PhilCare 360, we have examined every aspect, every nuance, and every moving part of the procedures our members have to go through to get health care, and we thought of ways in which we could apply technology towards improving each step,” Tanco said.
“We now have a clear roadmap of issues to address, as well as the digital innovations we will introduce to address them. Our innovations have begun and will continue to make health care more efficient, faster and ultimately smarter. We now have an app called HeyPhil, which serves as a health partner of our members. HeyPhil shows them affiliated clinics, hospitals, and doctors relevant to their health coverage and health concern should they need that information,” Tanco said.