Task Force PhilHealth report sent to Duterte today

MANILA, Philippines — Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra expressed optimism that Task Force PhilHealth would be able to meet today’s deadline and submit to President Duterte the outcome of its 30-day investigation on the anomalies in the Philippine Health Insurance Corp.

“Our report will attempt to present the general environment at PhilHealth which enables fraud and corruption, and specific instances where fraudulent or corrupt acts have been perpetrated because of this enabling environment,” he said yesterday.

He did not divulge details of the report or name those they would recommend to be criminally charged.

Early last week, the task force finished holding its hearings on the alleged multibillion-peso anomaly inside PhilHealth. They had seven days of hearings, called 12 witnesses and resource persons and required the submission of documents. Since then the members of the task force had held a meeting and began drafting its report to President Duterte.

They would also rely on the transcripts of records provided by the Senate’s committee of the whole that conducted its own investigation into the PhilHealth mess.

Among those called to attend the task force’s hearings were PhilHealth’s former senior vice president for legal sector Rodolfo del Rosario, who resigned last Aug. 24; senior vice president for finance policy management Israel Francis Pargas; senior vice president and chief information officer Jovita Aragona; corporate secretary Jonathan Mangaoang, and acting senior manager of PhilHealth’s fact-finding investigation and enforcement division Ernesto Barbado.

During one of the task force hearings, Aragona reportedly talked of the inability of the corporation’s IT systems that should have been used to detect fraudulent claims.

It was earlier reported that the proposed P2.1-billion IT project, intended to stop fraud and scams by some corrupt personnel, was allegedly tainted with irregularities.

It was also learned that the corporation reportedly recommended the granting of amnesties to hospitals with late claims.

Under the law that created PhilHealth, hospitals have 60 days, from the time the patient has been discharged, to file their claim, otherwise they would have waived their right to seek reimbursement.

“There was a recommendation from the Legal Sector, around the P3.9-billion claims on appeal that they want to grant an amnesty,” Undersecretary Markk Perete of the Department of Justice had said. But the PhilHealth Board has reportedly approved to only pay P668 million as part of the amnesty.

But TF PhilHealth said the proper recourse was not the granting of amnesty for those who failed to claim within the 60-day period, but for the hospital to file a case in court.

There were also allegedly thousands of cases against erring PhilHealth employees and healthcare institutions (HCIs) that have remained unfiled.

At the height of the investigations being done by both the Senate, House of Representatives and the task force, PhilHealth president and chief executive officer Ricardo Morales tendered his resignation last Aug. 26, citing health reasons.

Morales was replaced by former National Bureau of Investigation director Dante Gierran, who Guevarra believes is fit for the job as he is both lawyer and certified public accountant.

Guevarra had also asked the President to instruct the Governance Commission for GOCC to form an interim management committee, as part of PhilHealth’s structural reorganization. GOCC stands for government-owned and controlled corporations.

Task Force PhilHealth is composed of representatives from the Office of the Ombudsman, Commission on Audit, Civil Service Commission and the Office of the President. It also collaborated with other agencies such as the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission.