COA urged to release 2020 audit report on PhilHealth
MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Grace Poe on Monday urged the Commission on Audit to release its 2020 audit report on the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. to give legislators a clear picture of the state of its finances as they deliberate on the national budget for next year.
"We need to know exactly how much PhilHealth owes hospitals and healthcare workers," Poe said. "They must be paid soon and government must figure out where to get the funds."
“The operations of hospitals are at risk. We are still in a pandemic and people are still dying," she added. "PhilHealth must not hide or sugarcoat its numbers."
This comes a week after the Private Hospitals Association of the Philippines Inc. warned that a number of its members plan to disengage from the state-run insurer over its failure to pay reimbursement claims. Malacañang and a number of senators soon after urged PhilHealth to swiftly settle its obligations.
According to Poe, PhilHealth paid less than a third of the 35,147 COVID-19 claims it received from hospitals in 2020.
She also warned that private hospitals' non-renewal of accreditation with the agency will make it "difficult for PhilHealth members to reap the full benefits of their membership."
"[Members] will have to pay for their medical expenses from their own pockets and hope that the state health insurer will reimburse them."
Aside from supposedly owing money to hospitals, PhilHealth and the Philippine Red Cross also had issues over unpaid COVID-19 tests in 2020.
Poe also called out the agency for supposedly resorting to "delaying and scare tactics to discourage hospitals from pursuing what's due them," citing PHAPi's report that some hospitals have received summonses from the National Bureau of Investigation concerning their claims.
"We at the Senate need to examine PhilHealth's finances and take that into consideration in the discussions for the 2022 government budget," Poe said."Before COVID-19, COA already had concerns on PhilHealth's actuarial valuation process."
"COVID-19 would have made it more urgent for PhilHealth to get an actuarial study of the fund to come up with a set of recommendations that would make the fund viable and sustainable."
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