Bagong Henerasyon (BH) Party-list Rep. Robert Nazal is prodding the House of Representatives to launch a probe on the persistent delays in the government's payments to public and private hospitals on the cases of indigent patients.
For this purpose, the neophyte legislator filed House Resolution (HR) No.34 in the current 20th Congress.
The resolution directs the Committees on Health, Good Government and Public Accountability, and Appropriations to conduct a joint inquiry, in aid of legislation, to determine the full extent and human impact of the payment backlogs by the Department of Health (DOH), the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth), and other concerned agencies.
In seeking an inquiry, Nazal pointed to the July 6 announcement by the Private Hospitals Association of the Philippines Inc. (PHAPI) that many of its member-hospitals would stop accepting guarantee letters (GLs) for indigent patients due to more than P530 million in unpaid claims.
According to PHAPI, one hospital in Batangas province alone is owed P94 million for services already rendered.
“These are not theoretical debts. These are emergency surgeries completed, infants delivered, chemotherapy administered, and lives momentarily saved—now threatened by bureaucratic neglect,” Nazal said in the resolution.
“Every unpaid claim is a mother turned away, a child denied urgent treatment, and a family plunged into grief or debt for care they were promised would be free,” he added.
The businessman-turned-congressman said that when government delays or refuses to pay hospitals and healthcare workers, then the country's healthcare system itself fails. Lives are put at risk, he added.
Citing the Universal Health Care Act, and the Ease of Doing Business and Efficient Government Service Delivery Act, Nazal said agencies are required to process and pay legitimate claims within a prescribed period.
Yet these deadlines, he pointed out, are “routinely ignored, with no consequence, no accountability, and no sense of urgency".
He stressed that in the Philippines, delayed treatment too often leads to death, especially for the poorest and most vulnerable who rely on public support.
“We ask our doctors to do miracles, but we won’t even pay them on time,” the resolution read. “No health worker should be forced to choose between service and survival, nor any hospital between compassion and closure.”
Nazal also underscored the need for accountability and transparency in addressing the crisis.
He called for a full investigation into the root causes of the delays, including flaws in digital claims systems, cumbersome fund release procedures, and outdated internal controls. Responsible officials, he said, must be identified and held to account if found guilty of gross negligence, misconduct, or criminal dereliction of duty.
The inquiry is also expected to examine reported abuses by healthcare providers under the case-rate system.
Nazal cited the need to scrutinize hospitals allegedly engaged in overcharging and fraudulent billing, while recommending safeguards such as regular audits, stricter penalties, public disclosure of billing practices, and the creation of independent grievance mechanisms.