POE: DON'T DELAY REIMBURSING HOSPITALS

Hospitals awaiting due reimbursement from the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) must not be made to wait any longer as they struggle to protect and save lives amid the pandemic, Sen. Grace Poe said.

The senator made the call following repeated pleas from the Private Hospitals Association of the Philippines Inc. (PHAPI) to the state health insurer to expedite and facilitate the release of their valid reimbursement claims.

PHAPI president Jose de Grano earlier said that the amount of reimbursement applications with PhilHealth has reached P26 billion to P28 billion as of December 2020.

The amount is an "extrapolation" from their 114 hospital-members which submitted their claims, excluding private health institutions outside Metro Manila, De Grano said.

"This situation weighs heavily on our medical frontliners, patients, and the most vulnerable among our people," Poe lamented. "'Wag na natin silang pahirapan pa, antagal na nilang nagsasakripisyo at nagtitiis."

"Our hospitals are already bleeding while our medical frontliners put their lives on the line amid the systemic ills that affect our overall capacity to get back on our feet," Poe reiterated.

Not only private hospitals, but even government COVID-19 frontline institutions are having a hard time claiming PhilHealth reimbursements due to tedious documentation technicalities.

Poe reminded PhilHealth authorities that under Administrative Order No. 23 dated Feb. 21, 2020 of the Office of the President, all national government agencies are directed to hasten the reform of their processes in order to eliminate overregulation. They shall retain only such steps, procedures and requirements as may be necessary to fulfill their legal mandates and policy objectives. All processes in excess, including those which are redundant or burdensome to the public shall be deemed manifestation of overregulation and shall be removed accordingly.

Poe noted that even the President himself has instructed due reimbursement to hospitals.

"Buhay ang patuloy na ibinubuwis ng ating mga kababayan sa bawat araw ng pandemya. Walang lugar ang patuloy na panggigipit at pagpapabaya," Poe said.

"We must assist our frontline healthcare institutions in the same efficacious way that our people expect them to diligently attend to their patients," she added.

Earlier, at least 22 provinces reported high intensive care unit bed utilization rates and nine provinces with high isolation bed utilization rates.