Punish those involved in Philhealth corruption, fraud - HEAD

FOLLOWING ALLEGATIONS of corruption in the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation of Philhealth, the Health Alliance for Democracy or HEAD has urged the Duterte government to investigate and punish all those involved in the fraudulent schemes – from health providers to top ranking officials of the agency.

An estimated P154 billions of public money was lost from 2013 to 2018 due to Philhealth overpayments and other fraudulent schemes – among them the “ghost” dialysis scam that defrauded people’s money, fraudulent claims on cataract operations and pneumonia.

Dr. Edelina de la Paz, chairperson of HEAD, a nongovernmental organization, said for years, Philhealth have become a milking cow of those in power. Citing the 2012 Annual Financial Report on Government-owned and Controlled Corporations or GOCC, she said

Philhealth topped all GOCCS in bonuses.

And that Commission on Audit or COA disclosed that more than 22 sort of allowances and benefits were paid to the top officials of Philhealth. It released P1.65 billion in unauthorized dole-outs.

In addition, COA reported in 2014 that Philhealth continuously received bonuses, allowances and other benefits despite issuances of notice of disallowances by COA. As of December 2014, unsettled disallowed benefits and allowances amounted to P3.11 billion, including the P811.5 million bonuses and allowances for 2014.

In 2015, Ruben Basa, a Philhealth official, alleged that Phillhealth officials illegally diverted P10.6 billion in funds supposedly meant for senior citizens to set up barangay health stations. In 2017, the interim president of Philhealth reportedly spent P627,000 for travel, when the agency tallied a loss of nearly P9 billion, according to a COA document.

De la Paz said they consistently raised questions and opposition to the government’s program of allocating billions of pesos to Philhealth.

“More importantly, HEAD maintains that neither the corruption-laded Philhealth nor the Universal Health Care or UHC law will solve the people’s health problems. As a Government Business Enterprise, Philhealth will seek to make profit and compete against other companies with a main purpose of commercial activities in the private sector. Its income-generating scheme is by increasing the number of members and premium contributions while reducing the benefits for the sick through cost-efficiency,” she said.

HEAD believes that for health care to be really universal, the government should go beyond a health insurance scheme, according to De la Paz. “Government funds which came from people’s money should be allocated directly to strengthen public health care system. This includes allotting funds for the provision of direct health services, primary health care, hiring more doctors, nurses and other health personnel and developing more public health facilities like hospitals and health centers especially in far flung areas,” she said.

She accused Philhealth as being run by a “mafia” which, over the years, managed not less than P60 billion worth of public funds on top of the billions worth of members’ premium contributions.

“The fraudulent schemes and corruption in Philhealth is just a symptom of a sick health care system. The management of public funds by the Philhealth mafia is a very serious concern that the Filipino people must be alarmed about, especially with the enactment of the insurance-based Universal Health Care Law that placed the implementation of the health care program and the management of huge amount of public funds to Philhealth.”

“It will manage not only the billions from the premium contributions of Philhealth members, but also funds allocated by the General Appropriations Act, the shares from Philippine Gaming Corporation and the proceeds from the sin taxes,” she said. (Mindanao Examiner)