The government pandemic task force has allowed the implementation of Philippine Health Insurance Corporation's (PhilHealth) new debit-credit payment for health care facilities in all places with high risk of coronavirus infection.
The decision aimed at hastening payment of hospital claims was reached by the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases during a meeting Thursday.
"The Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) approved on Thursday, April 22, 2021, the application of the Debit-Credit Payment Method (DCPM) of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) in all high risk and critical risk areas," Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said in a statement Friday, April 23.
"These other high risk and critical risk areas will also be prioritized in the COVID-19 vaccine allocation, human health resource deployment, and other relevant COVID-19 response, as applicable," he added.
Roque noted that PhilHealth has issued a circular on the use of the DCPM to facilitate the settlement of accounts payable to health care facilities during the state of public health emergency arising from the coronavirus pandemic.
The payment scheme was initially applied only to areas identified by the government task force, particularly in Metro Manila, Batangas, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, Pampanga, and Rizal.
The hospitals eligible for DCPM must have no Interim Reimbursement Mechanism Fund balance on record. They must also be attending to COVID-19 patients or providing the testing package.
President Duterte earlier directed the state health corporation to hasten the settlement of claims made by hospitals to ensure their uninterrupted operations during the pandemic. Hospitals have complained about PhilHealth's alleged slow payment of claims.