DRILON ASKS PHILHEALTH TO USE RESERVE FUND TO PAY CLAIMS

Senator Franklin Drilon has asked the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) to use its pooled funds to immediately pay claims, amid reports about the "very slow pace" by which the state health insurer would service claims from hospitals.

Drilon questioned PhilHealth as to why it was holding on to an estimated P90.7 billion reserve fund as of July this year when what is required by law at the present level should only be about P30 billion, which is equivalent to two years of compensable fees.

"They have a reserve fund of about P90 billion which is way above what is required by law," said drilon, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.

Druing the budget hearing of the Health department, PhilHealth President and Chief Executive Officer Rey Aquino said that current balance of PhilHealth to hospital claims stood at P1.4 billion.

Further, Drilon said that the national health insurer should utilize the reserve fund to reduce PhilHealth premiums, increase benefits or expand the coverage, particularly on the poorest sectors of the society.

He said PhilHealth should come up with a scheme to utilize the pooled funds to improve the health services in the country without jacking up current premium rates.

Drilon said that he has requested a separate hearing of the PhilHealth budget to discuss the problem with hospital claims.

"We have required a separate presentation by PhilHealth because we have received a lot of reports about the very, very slow pace by which the Philhealth would service the claims from hospitals," he added.