Palace to PhilHealth: Settle hospitals’ claims ASAP

MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang wants state-run Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) to settle hospitals’ claims as soon as possible as failure to do so would affect the government’s pandemic response.

The Philippine Hospital Association recently revealed that PhilHealth has not paid the claims of some of its members at a time when they need financial resources to treat patients who caught COVID-19. PhilHealth has assured the public that it is working double time to process the pending claims worth P25.6 billion.

“The debts have to be paid because if we don’t, the private hospitals won’t be able to continue treating people who are sick with COVID and we do not have enough public hospitals,” presidential spokesman Harry Roque said at a press briefing.

“So the appeal of the President, and I’m sure (PhilHealth chief) attorney (Dante) Gierran will listen to this, the claims have to be settled as soon as possible... We need to see results now,” he added.

Earlier this month, PhilHealth said it has paid P166 billion for about 13.6 million claims or more than 76 percent of the almost 18 million claims it received from its accredited hospitals nationwide from last year to June 30.