Children with hearing impairment to get PhilHealth benefit package

Recognizing the impact of having hearing impairment, the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) has announced there is now a benefit package for children with hearing disabilities.

According to PhilHealth, the Z benefit packages have been expanded to include children with hearing impairment under PhilHealth Circular No. 2018-0011, dated Feb. 14, 2018.

“Loss of hearing can be disabling,” noted PhilHealth as it underscored the importance of recognizing the impairment early to prevent it from affecting a child’s communication abilities.

If the disability is not addressed early, it could spell the difference on the chance of children to participate in educational activities and eventually on opportunities to gain meaningful employment.

A fact sheet of the World Health Organization in March 2018 showed that around 466 million people worldwide have “disabling hearing loss” and 34 million of them are children. By 2050, the figure is expected to increase to 900 million.

Hearing loss may result from genetic causes, complications at birth, certain infectious diseases, chronic ear infections, the use of particular drugs, exposure to excessive noise and ageing.

The fact sheet also showed that 60 percent of childhood hearing loss is due to preventable cases. Unaddressed hearing loss poses an annual global cost of $750 billion.

PhilHealth said the Board has “approved an improved, rationalized and relevant benefit package for children with disability with the perspective of capturing the preventive to curative approach to patient care.”

The agency has come up with various Z benefits designed to prevent “catastrophic spending among the marginalized that are enrolled in the program while ensuring the provision of quality healthcare services.”

PhilHealth added that under the circular, services such as screening, speech therapy and provision of hearing device shall be provided to beneficiaries who must be 17 years old and younger.