DOH chief asks PhilHealth: Cover patients’ transport costs

MANILA, Philippines - Health Secretary Paulyn Ubial has asked the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. to study if it is possible for PhilHealth to cover the transportation expenses of patients seeking treatment in hospitals.

“From a specific barangay, a patient takes, for example, a multi-cab. And upon reaching the hospital, the hospital will pay the multi-cab. The hospital will then charge it to PhilHealth,” Ubial explained.

“That is how our health system should be. It is not the patients that should have problems,” she added.

Ubial noted it is important for patients not to have problems with transportation when they go to hospitals for treatment.

She also noted that this system is doable as it is already being implemented in Davao, particularly in DOH-run Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC).

“What we do there is door-to-door service. They are picked up by the ambulance from their houses, brought to the SPMC. When they are discharged, they are brought back to their houses. That is the kind of service we want to implement all over the Philippines,” she explained.

“We have to review and refine PhilHealth so that it actually improves utilization, availment and services that are actually geared towards helping the poor,” she added.