Return P14.8 billion in PhilHealth funds – Sotto

MANILA, Philippines — The P14.8 billion believed to be illegally disbursed from the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. to certain hospitals and healthcare institutions (HCIs) under the controversial Interim Reimbursement Mechanism or IRM must be fully accounted for and immediately returned to PhilHealth, Senate President Vicente Sotto III said yesterday.

Sotto issued the statement as the Senate is expected to adopt this week the report of the chamber’s committee of the whole, which investigated alleged anomalies in PhilHealth, including the IRM, a scheme that advanced money to hospitals and HCIs to allow them to operate amid the COVID-19 pandemic without fear of insolvency.

“They must liquidate (IRM funds). Aside from liquidation, the report recommended that PhilHealth work on having the excess disbursement returned, if not, they (officials) will have to answer for that. Where did the money go?” Sotto told dzBB in Filipino.

The specially convened committee, which had all senators as members, found out during its inquiry last month that out of P27 billion set aside for the IRM, P14.8 billion have been released to various private and public hospitals and HCIs from March up to June when the scheme was suspended.

As of latest report from PhilHealth to the panel, only less than P2 billion have been so far liquidated.

Senators had also questioned the apparent favoritism in the disbursements where some private hospitals and HCIs were given hundreds of millions of pesos when they have zero or very few COVID-19 patients, while public hospitals in the same regions asking for funds under the same scheme were not given any.

The panel – with the help of several whistleblowers – uncovered other irregularities in the IRM, including that it was implemented before the legal requirements have been complied with; failure of PhilHealth to withhold taxes on releases made, and lack of clear auditing requirements that should have been imposed on recipient hospitals and HCIs.

Sotto said based on the committee’s estimates, only P3 billion out of the P14.8 billion appear to be legitimate releases.

“Not all (hospitals and HCIs) should have received funds,” he said.

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, who chairs PhilHealth, denied knowledge of any wrongdoing, but Sotto warned that such denials would not shield him from criminal prosecution.

The panel had recommended criminal charges to be filed against Duque, former PhilHealth chief Ricardo Morales and several other officials.

Sotto said if President Duterte reads the committee report, he would be convinced to let go of Duque.

“I expect that once the President sees our point, he will change his view. He may still have trust in him (Duque) but there are things that must be faced because there are violations of the law,” he said.