The Anti-Red Tape Authority (ARTA) has committed to help the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) in identifying bottlenecks in the latter’s processes in paying the valid claims of hospitals.
ARTA Director-General Jeremiah Belgica made the statement after President Duterte ordered PhilHealth to immediately pay the claims of hospitals as the number of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases in the country continued to rise.
In a statement, Belgica renewed ARTA's commitment to helping Philhealth resolve the backlog of hospital claims as the agency joined the call of President Duterte to speed up the payment of obligations to hospitals.
In a meeting with PhilHealth and the Philippine Hospital Association early this week, Belgica explained how ARTA can assist the state insurer in swiftly settling its reimbursements.
Belgica said ARTA has offices that help come up with more rational solutions and reengineering systems, adding that the agency will work closely with PhilHealth to identify the bottlenecks in the latter's processes and streamline before its shift to automation.
"One of the things that we encountered with other government agencies is that some would jump to automation without first seeing the most rational and simplified process," Belgica said.
"We cannot automate without first removing redundancies and streamlining the process," he added.
Meanwhile, Belgica warned that sanctions will be imposed on those who will be found deliberately delaying the release of hospital claims.
"Anyone who is holding up ng kanilang proseso (the processes) whether unwittingly or with negligence, hindi po ito tinotolerate ng ating Pangulo (is not tolerated by the President)," he said.
PhilHealth has approved the application of a Debit-Credit Payment Method (DCPM) to facilitate the settlement of accounts payable to Health Care Facilities (HCFs) during the state of public health emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Roque said HCFs eligible for DCPM must be located in regions identified by the government pandemic task forces, such as the National Capital Region, Batangas, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, Pampanga, and Rizal.
The HCFs must likewise have no Interim Reimbursement Mechanism Fund balance on record.
They must also be attending to COVID-19 patients or providing the SARS-COV-2 testing package and their accreditation is not suspended during the applicable period.