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The House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations on Monday, July 8, instructed the Department of Health (DOH) to enforce its no balance billing (NBB) policy to include indigent patients that were staying in private wards because of hospital overcapacity.

During the oversight hearing with the DOH and the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth), Iloilo 1st district Rep. Janette Garin raised the motion to have DOH Secretary Teodoro Herbosa prepare an administrative circular to deal with concerns surrounding the NBB policy.

“I moved that the secretary of health be directed to issue an admin circular reiterating to all DOH and national government hospitals and LGU (local government unit) hospitals in the application of the no-balance billing that includes the admission in a private room because of the absence of an available ward room,” said Garin.

This motion was approved by the panel without opposition.

It was Northern Samar 1st district Rep. Paul Daza who pointed out that some indigent patients were not able to attain the benefits of the NBB policy because of the overcapacity in the hospital wards.

“There’s a gap, in which poor patients in many hospitals because puno yung ward napupunta siya private (the ward is full and they go to private hospitals). In fact, there should also be no-balance billing and no out-of-pocket [expenses] but dahil nasa private, sinisingil (because they're in private, they are charged). And that should not be the case,” said Daza.

“When we say no balance billing for poor patients in public hospitals, whether LGU or national, no balance billing means you can’t charge the patient and they should not have any out-of-pocket,” he stressed.

The NBB is a policy implemented through PhilHealth, which aims to reduce the out-of-pocket expenses of patients and ensure financial risk protection for indigents, as well as sponsored members, domestic workers, senior citizens, and lifetime members.

Herbosa clarified that for the DOH portion of this policy--as long as the patient is identified as an indigent by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and is admitted to a public hospital--the patient will benefit from the NBB.

“The no-balance billing policy of PhilHealth is for the members’ reimbursement and the accredited hospitals’ compliance,” he added.

The DOH chief noted that if a hospital is still charging indigent patients, PhilHealth will run after them.

With regards to the overcapacity in hospitals, Herbosa told the House members that the main reason for it was the limited bed capacity in the country’s health facilities.

“We need to triple our bed capacity to serve the 113 million Filipinos because our bed-to-population is 0.5 per 1,000. And the minimum for a health system to function is 1.5 beds per 1,000,” he said.

“The situation we see in our hospitals is because of an overall symptom of shortage in beds,” he added.