PhilHealth, hospital groups meet to fast-track payment of claims

The Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) said it is currently coordinating with hospital groups to speed up payment of unsettled financial obligations to medical facilities.

PhilHealth Vice President for Corporate Affairs Shirley Domingo said that they have already met with officials of Philippine Hospital Association and Private Hospital Association of the Philippines.

“We laid out the issues talaga confronting PhilHealth and iyong mga katulad po niyan, iyong mga confusion in policies na sinabi po sa amin iyon (and they told us about the confusion in policies),” said Domingo on Friday, August 13.

“Actually, ngayon (now), ongoing ang meeting natin ngayon with the officials of the corporation to iron out all the issues talaga on the policies that they say were confusing,” she added.

“So, tinututukan po natin iyan ngayon and we hope with this mapabilis po natin ang mga claims processing (We are addressing this and we hope we can speed up claims processing),” Domingo added.

PhilHealth will pay pending hospital claims for COVID-19 cases, assured Domingo.

“Yes, susunod talaga kami sa direktibang ito at tinututukan po natin iyan closely with the president himself. He is there in all our meetings, si President [Dante] Gierran (We will definitely follow this directive (payment) and this is closely being addressed by our president himself — President Gierran),” said Domingo.

“Hinihimay po natin isa-isa lahat ng policies na iyan, lahat ng bottlenecks na iyan at hinahanapan po natin ng mga solusyon lahat iyon para mapabilis nag pagsunod namin sa direktiba to release funds kaagad na kailangan ng ating mga ospital (We are scrutinizing all policies one by one, all those bottlenecks, and we are looking for solutions to speed up our compliance with the directive to release funds that are needed by our hospitals),” Domingo added.

PhilHealth said it already paid ₱166 billion for the 13.6 million claims or 76.4 percent of the 18 million claims it received last year until June 30, 2021 from its accredited government and private hospitals in the country.

“The Corporation is working double time to process the remaining 12 percent amounting to ₱25.6 billion which are in varying levels of processing in its offices,” said.