Fix info system, PhilHealth told
PhilHealth’s current information system was in ‘shambles’ hence, making it difficult for them to generate the necessary projections such as its fund life among others
Amid fiscal anomalies within the state-run Philippine Health Insurance Corp. or PhilHealth, Finance Secretary Carlos
Dominguez III said that they are in discussion with the agency regarding its information system.
“Since October of last year, the DoF (Department of Finance) has been in meetings with PhilHealth and we have told them that the current state of their information system does not allow us to actually make secure projections on their fund life,” Dominguez said during a virtual press conference on Thursday.
According to him, PhilHealth’s current information system was in “shambles” hence, making it difficult for them to generate the necessary projections such as its fund life among others.
“We’ve pointed this out to them since October last year. Now they are arguing about spending P2.1 billion on an information system where in fact, they’ve spent close to P200 billion and their information system is not robust enough to capture all the data,” he said.
“So we are saying, number one, they have to improve their information system so that we can make not only a one year projection but a ten-year projection for PhilHealth,” he added.
Still, the Finance chief said that he will take PhilHealth’s word that their funds will run out come late 2021 or late 2022 thus, the P70 billion to P80 billion budget to subsidize the agency.
“As of now, I will take their word that probably by 2021, late 2021 or late 2022 they may run out of money. That is why we have in our budget for this year, I believe it is around P70 billion or P80 billion to subsidize PhilHealth,” Dominguez explained.
“But again, in the long-term, we have to fix up the administration of PhilHealth to be able to get a good handle of what exactly their liabilities and fund life are,” he added.
To recall, PhilHealth’s P2.1 billion information technology project was flagged by state auditors as overpriced.
Fire Morales
Meanwhile, members of the Makabayan bloc dared President Duterte to fire Morales over alleged massive corruption within the agency.
In a press conference of the bloc on Thursday, Gabriela Rep. Arlene Brosas said aside from corruption allegations, Morales is not qualified to be PhilHealth chief as he is not a health expert.
“We challenge the President to fire Gen. Morales. He is not qualified for that position,” she said.
Brosas urged the President to be true to his promise that that he would not tolerate even a whiff of corruption from any government employee under his administration.
ACT Teachers Rep. France Castro likewise urged the President to fire Morales as well as the officials under him involved in corruption within the agency.
Castro also called for the abolition of PhilHealth.
“PhilHealth should be abolished and just put its funds for use by hospitals,” she said.
Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Zarate, for his part, called for transfer of government funds from PhilHealth to public hospitals and for reform in the country’s health system.
Zarate urged the President not to “recycle” or reappoint officials involved in corruption.
During a congressional hearing on PhilHealth anomalies this week, former anti-fraud legal officer Thorsson Montes
Keith said some P15 billion have been stolen from the agency using different fraudulent schemes.
Keith, who resigned due to alleged widespread corruption within PhilHealth accused Morales of being the new leader of a syndicate in the agency.
Lawmakers similarly reacted to the issue hounding the state insurer.
Senate President Vicente Sotto said government leaders, especially appointed officials, must both be competent and reliable to ensure the proper and successful performance of their tasks.
“Incompetence in governance legitimizes a corrupt and broken system. The inability of top officials to explain the lapses in PhilHealth is enough evidence that these managers are taking us — the public — on a joyride,” he said.
Senator Panfilo Lacson, on the other hand, said: “Being a consistent intervenor in augmenting the budgets of agencies based on justifiable need, the DoH and PhilHealth included, I can say for sure that I and many senators will have second thoughts to pour in more funds into the UHC program unless the executive shows seriousness and sincerity in addressing the unconscionable pocketing of funds by unscrupulous PhilHealth officials.”