PhilHealth to expand members’ benefit coverage to 50%
PhilHealth to expand members’ benefit coverage to 50%
Transcript
00:00 State insurer PhilHealth has managed to straighten out its finances,
00:03 completely settling its arrears in IOUs to hospitals and physicians calling collect
00:09 since the height of the pandemic. As a result, the House has seen it fit to up the ante on PhilHealth
00:14 services by pressing it to raise its benefit coverage to 50% unqualified members.
00:20 Our Melendez Mores dwells on in this report.
00:22 In response to the call of House Speaker Martin Romualdez,
00:28 the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation or PhilHealth has agreed to expand its benefit
00:33 coverage for its members to 50%. During today's hearing of the House Committee on Health,
00:38 this was one of the main topics discussed and officials from the state insurer also appeared,
00:43 led by PhilHealth President and CEO Emanuele Desma Jr.
00:47 According to House Deputy Majority Leader for Communications Erwin Tulfo, as of now,
00:52 the mechanics and system of the new benefit coverage just need to be ironed out,
00:56 but they hope it would be finished soon.
00:59 For example, if your bill is P300,000, PhilHealth will pay P150,000. I believe,
01:05 it also includes the doctor's fees, professional fees, PhilHealth will pay.
01:12 What they will do is to study the mechanics and timing of implementation.
01:20 But the Speaker is making it easier for the PhilHealth board of directors and their CEO
01:27 to study ASAP as much as possible if they can implement this year.
01:34 But with expanded benefit coverage, would there be additional premium to their contributions too?
01:39 The House leader is confident there's no need for this.
01:42 Aside from our contributions, the House also gave a budget for PhilHealth for this year.
01:51 So it will be sufficient enough. I asked the House earlier,
01:54 their answer is that it's sufficient to cover that.
01:58 While waiting for the implementation of the 50 percent coverage,
02:01 PhilHealth also proudly announced during the House hearing that effective February 14,
02:06 their coverage for selected illnesses and hospital situations has already increased 30 percent.
02:12 This was welcomed by several congressmen like Agri-Portless Representative Wilbert Lee.
02:17 With this, Lee reminds the public to carefully monitor the amount being deducted by hospitals
02:23 from their PhilHealth coverage to ensure one receives appropriate benefits.
02:51 Before the discussion on benefit coverage, PhilHealth also reported having paid P50 billion
02:57 in unsettled claims to hospitals and doctors in the last months of 2023,
03:01 which were the perennial complaints on the agency since the pandemic broke out.
03:05 The state insurer assures that moving forward,
03:08 they will continue to improve their services for the benefit of the Filipinos.
03:12 Melalee Moras from the National TV Network for a new and better Republic.