The Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) emphasized on Friday, Nov. 10, the mandatory application of senior citizens and persons with disabilities (PWD) discounts to medical bills before patient discharge.
“PhilHealth received reports that several health facilities failed to deduct the senior citizens discounts on their bills; this is why we released PhilHealth Advisory 2023-0036 for our partner hospitals to observe at all times”, PhilHealth President and CEO Emmanuel R. Ledesma, Jr., announced.
Mandated by Republic Acts 9994 and 10754, PhilHealth said that the discounts must be applied as per the health facilities' commitment to PhilHealth.
Ledesma clarified that if a patient qualifies for both discounts, only one will be applicable.
“We have to give whatever the law mandates. This is our responsibility to our members, and one of them is to ensure that their senior citizen or PWD privileges, whichever is applicable, are properly deducted from their hospital bills,” he noted.
The health insurer also highlighted that the order of application for deductions includes VAT exemption, a senior citizen or PWD discount of 20 percent, and then PhilHealth benefits.
“Yun pong balanse ang siya na lamang dapat bayaran ng pasyente kung mayroon pa. Kung ang ating senior citizen member ay na-admit naman sa mga pampublikong pasilidad, ay wala na silang babayaran dahil sa aming No Balance Billing policy (The remaining balance, if any, should be the only payment that the patient needs to settle. If our senior citizen member is admitted to a public facility, they won't have any payment due to our No Balance Billing policy),” Ledesma reiterated.
He also underscored that failure to implement these privileges can lead to penalties, fines, and possible accreditation suspension or revocation.
PhilHealth urges immediate reporting of non-deductions to relevant local government units or their callback channels.
“Igiit natin ang ating karapatan dahil ang mga ito ay itinakda ng mga batas. Kami naman ay nakahandang umaksyon sakaling may mga ulat kaming matatanggap mula sa ating mga miyembro (Let's assert our rights because these are mandated by laws. We are ready to take action if we receive reports from our members),” the PhilHealth chief pointed out.