Medical services free in Cebu provincial, district hospitals

Even if President Rodrigo Duterte has not passed the Universal Health Care bill into law, hospitals in Cebu Province can now provide free medical services to its constituents, regardless of their social status.

This, after the Cebu Provincial Board (PB) approved an ordinance amending the Province’s Revenue Code that will make all medical services in the 16 provincial and district hospitals free of charge.

The amendments to Provincial Ordinance 2008-10 were authored by PB Members Horacio Franco III and Jose Mari “Tata” Salvador.

“Taking into account the changes in circumstances due to inflation and the spiraling increase of prices of prime commodities vis-a-vis the economic and social status of some patients, there is a need to further amend Ordinance No. 2008-10 to ensure the efficient and effective delivery of basic health services, especially to our poor and indigent patients of our provincial and district hospitals,” the ordinance states.

Based on the amendments on the ordinance, health services provided by the outpatient department, emergency room, dental services, room rates for charity ward, delivery room, operating room and other hospital services, such as the use of ambulances, chest x-ray, electrocardiography (ECG) and other radiologic services are now free of charge.

But Franco said patients who can afford the services of private accommodation cannot avail themselves of these services.

“We assume that if you avail yourself of services in a medical ward, then you are entitled to free medical services. But if you can afford a private room, we assume that you can afford treatment,” Franco said in Cebuano.

But a patient who is admitted in a private room in a provincial and district hospital can still avail himself of free medical services depending on the recommendation of the attending doctor.

Franco said there was no need to require patients to show a certificate of indigency to avail themselves of the free medical services.

But PB Member Celestino “Tining” Martinez III questioned how the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (Philhealth) could release its premiums if provincial and district hospitals offered their services for free.

Dr. Rene Catan, Provincial Health Office (PHO) head, said the Province would lose only a small percentage of its income even if provincial and district hospitals offered their services for free.

Catan said they would implement a “Case Rate Payment Scheme” in which the patient could avail himself of medical services based on his or her medical condition.

Catan said the Province is expected to lose only at least six percent of its income from provincial and district hospitals.

In 2016, provincial and district hospitals earned a total of P240 million, of which P235 million was paid by Philhealth.