Senators on Saturday, April 3, urged the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHeath) to revisit and amend its policy excluding temporary hospital tents from its benefits packages.
In a joint statement, Senators Nancy Binay, Joel Villanueva, Juan Miguel Zubiri, Juan Edgardo "Sonny" Angara, Sherwin Gatchalian, and Grace Poe asked PhilHealth President Dante Gierran to "immediately come up with a standard policy and guidelines" to cover patients staying in hospital tents while waiting for admission.
They noted that hospitals are again already overcrowded due to the rising number of COVID-19 cases in the country, forcing many people to stay in temporary hospital tents.
"Considering the continued rise in COVID-related cases, PhilHealth cannot claim, as an excuse for its indifference, being drowned by bureaucracy or being choked financially. As a government corporation, it is its obligation to break the barriers and provide solutions in the midst of a health care coverage crisis," they said.
The senators pointed out that the Universal Healthcare Act (Republic Act No. 11223) provides that every Filipino should have access to emergency health services.
"The Senate made sure that every Filipino should have access to health services, and be protected against financial risk. Therefore, all Filipinos are entitled to PhilHealth benefits and service coverages — including emergency and comprehensive outpatient services," they said.
Especially in a pandemic, they stressed that the "PhilHealth has a social and moral obligation to serve the needs of its members. It plays a major role in implementing the UHC law and its services are crucially important."
"In these trying times, PhilHealth should be the voice of compassion and care for every patient. It is but tragic that it has been unable to respond and reach out to the already overburden families of patients," they lamented.
During an online hearing in the House of Representatives last Tuesday, Bayan Muna Representative Ferdinand Gaite disclosed that patients in some hospitals are being charged P1,000 for every hour during their stay in tents while waiting to be admitted, and that the PhilHealth does not cover such expenses.
PhilHealth Acting Senior Vice President Neri Santiago admitted that the use of temporary hospital accommodations are currently "not part" of the state insurer’s packages, but agreed it should be part of their coverage.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, who is Philhealth's ex-officio chairman, also found the practice unacceptable. He assured the lawmakers to have the policies revisted.
"The tragedy is that the coronavirus did not only disturb the entire healthcare system, it actually laid bare--in the face of the pandemic--the big gaps in the system, the cracks in the health-service delivery, and the inability of PhilHealth to adapt and respond to extraordinary situations," the senators commented.
"We appeal to PhilHealth not to ignore the cries of families who have no recourse but to shell out their last money dahil hindi iko-cover ng PhilHealth ang mga pasyenteng nakapila sa ER o yung nasa mga temporary tent," their statement read.
"Hindi po ito maliit na bagay. Huwag naman po sana maging manhid (This matter is not minuscule. I hope we are not insensitive to this)," they further stressed.