PhilHealth assures hospitals of reimbursement

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) yesterday gave assurance that it has “sufficient funds” to pay the reimbursement claims of hospitals.

In a statement, PhilHealth reiterated its commitment to pay its obligations to partner hospitals.

But being a public fund, the state-run agency said it has to make sure that “safeguards are in place based on accounting and auditing rules and regulations prior to disbursements.”

“For 2021, as of May 17… PhilHealth paid a total of P25.38 blilion in claims, P4.88 billion of which are for COVID-19 related claims,” the agency noted.

According to PhilHealth, it is implementing Debit-Credit Payment Method (DCPM) in recognition of the needs of hospitals for funds especially those in “highly critical areas for COVID-19.”

“PhilHealth has introduced the (policy) wherein 60 percent of good ‘in process claims’ are paid outright to qualified hospitals minus two percent withholding tax, while the remaining 40 percent shall be paid after claims processing and reconciliation, minus two percent withholding tax,” the agency added.

The accelerated payment method provides hospitals sufficient cash flow to continue providing the sick with quality health care during the pandemic.

Data shows PhilHealth paid almost P6 billion in DCPM to 182 hospitals.