CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – The Philippine Health Insurance Corp.-Region 10 (PhilHealth-10) is targeting to increase the number of PhilHealth-accredited Konsulta providers in Northern Mindanao as part of the full implementation of the Universal Health Care (UHC) system and policies in 2024.
Delio Aseron II, PhilHealth-10 regional vice president, said they are targeting to accredit a total of 64 Konsulta providers at the end of this year and 128 Konsulta providers at the end of 2023.
“We will do that because if we have many Konsulta providers, our members can choose the nearby facilities or which they think that has a better service,” Aseron said in his opening remarks during the Social Health Insurance Education Series (SHInES) on Friday, Oct. 7.
According to PhilHealth, Konsulta provider refers to the primary care facilities and or health care professionals accredited by PhilHealth to provide the Konsulta package under the UHC Law.
The PhilHealth Konsulta package is the primary care benefit package of PhilHealth that is paid per capita and covers a defined set of primary care health services based on their life-stage, health risks, and needs for which all Filipinos are entitled to.
As of Oct. 3, there are 40 accredited Konsulta providers in Region 10 and they could be increased as the agency has received a total of 63 letters of interest from government and private institutions for accreditation.
Dr. Francis Ramos, PhilHealth-10 Konsulta focal person, said that the PhilHealth Konsulta package has been introduced as PhilHealth, under UHC Law, shall implement a comprehensive outpatient benefit to address the problem in primary health care within two years from the effectivity of the law.
Ramos added that UHC wants to focus more on primary health care as PhilHealth is only popular for inpatient cases.
Under the package, PhilHealth will cover consultation and case management; provision of preventive services; assistance in accessing services in subcontracted or partner facilities; and referral to specialty and higher level of care.
PhilHealth will also cover 13 common laboratory tests and 21 common drugs and medications.
Ramos said that they came up with these services and benefits as they are the most in demand services, most requested laboratory tests, and most prescribed drugs and medications by the doctors.
“We found out that the most common or in demand health service by Filipinos are actually your routine and common consultations,” he said.
“There are more Filipinos seeking consultation every minute than the entire year of all admitted Filipinos in hospitals, that is actually the demand,” he added.
The public was urged to create an account in the PhilHealth Member Portal (www.philhealth.gov.ph) as the first step to avail of the benefits.
Ramos said members can choose their preferred Konsulta provider once they already have an account. However, he reminded the members to carefully choose their preferred Konsulta provider as that would be their permanent provider for the current year.