HMO surge amid pandemic
Our calls have also increased not only for our availments, but also for inquiries about how to get a card or be a member of Medicare Plus
The Covid-19 pandemic has caused a seismic shift in the availment of health insurance from corporate to individual clients, a pundit said Monday.
In an interview with “Kalingang Katribu,” Medicare Plus Inc. CEO Jayjay Viray said that Medicare Plus, for one, has seen a surge in new individual accounts versus the company’s corporate plans, which used to stand at 90/10 client ratio.
“What is significant right now is that young people didn’t care about a health plan. But now, it’s a big component, and it entails a health benefit to make a company more competitive,” Viray said.
These are individual clients who didn’t go through the brokers to avail themselves of a health plan, and, instead, called Medicare directly, she said.
The role of the HMO (health maintenance organization) during the time of pandemic was very crucial in the sense that, as of the report of the Insurance Commission, out of the total case of P2.41 billion-worth of Covid-19 cases, the HMO industry shouldered 54.65 percent, or P1.32 billion overall.
Viray said that out of 104 million Filipinos, only seven million (less than 10 percent) are enrolled in an HMO plan.
According to her, Medicare Plus continued servicing their members in the outpatient department or those who were admitted in the thick of the pandemic, and continued catering to calls and teleconferencing so they can have face-to-face consultation with their members.
Most of them claimed that they were either afflicted with respiratory diseases or anything that might be mistaken as Covid-like symptoms.
“Our calls have also increased not only for our availments, but also for inquiries about how to get a card or be a member of Medicare Plus,” Viray said.
According to her, Medicare Plus launched a pandemic rate last year, understanding that the universal health care plan of the government will work best when supplemented by private efforts.
“I’m bullish on the industry because of how the government is supporting it, and how the people are responding to it, realizing that health is an essential component of our lives and that HMOs can be bought individually,” Viray said.