Over 1.6 million health workers in public and private institutions would soon receive their One Covid-19 Allowance (OCA) following the approval by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) on Wednesday, Oct. 5.
Budget Secretary Amenah F. Pangandaman said the DBM approved the release of P11.5 billion to the Department of Health (DOH) to cover the OCA or health emergency allowance (HEA) claims for the period January to June 2022.
Pangandaman said the OCA release will be given to more than 1.6 million eligible public and private health care and non-health care workers for
“Our health care workers deserve all the support and assistance from their government. They’ve been risking their lives to save and protect our people amidst this still prevailing pandemic. This is the least we can do for them,” Pangandaman said on Wednesday, Oct. 5.
The latest release of funds will cover the unfunded portion of some 2,613,331 approved OCA/HEA claims by the DOH as of Sept. 5, 2022, with a total funding requirement of P18.7 billion.
Of the amount, P7.92 billion has been released last Feb. 14 that covered the payment of 995,671 OCA claims.
Last Oct. 3, the DBM has also approved the release of a Special Allotment Release Order (SARO) amounting to P1.04 billion to cover the special risk allowance (SRA) of eligible public and private health workers.
Pangandaman said the funding covered unpaid Covid-19 SRA claims of 55,211 health workers, who shall receive a grant amounting to P5,000 for every month they are serving during the period of state of national emergency.
Qualified health workers refer to medical, allied medical, and other personnel assigned in hospitals and health care facilities, and who are directly catering to or in contact with Covid-19 patients, persons under investigation (PUIs) or persons under monitoring (PUMs).
The release of funding for COVID-19 SRA is pursuant to Republic Act (RA) No. 11494, known as the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act, which states the provision of allowances and benefits to all public and private health workers catering to or in contact with COVID-19 patients.
Meanwhile, Administrative Order No. 36 or Authorizing the grant of Covid-19 SRA to health workers directly catering to or in contact with Covid-19 patients during the State of National Emergency was issued on Nov. 20, 2020.
The grant of the SRA was further extended to June 30, 2021 under Administrative Order No. 42.
As of date, the total released allotment for SRA amounts to P11.857 billion.