The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) expressed its full support to the proposed amendments to Republic Act No. 9439, the Anti-Hospital Detention Law, to pinpoint exactly who is responsible and accountable in illegally detaining patients due to unpaid hospital bills.

In its position paper, the CHR highlighted the need for “proportional and differentiated accountability.”

It pointed out that the responsibility for hospital detention of patients due to unpaid bills primarily rests with those who formulate and enforce hospital policies, rather than with personnel who merely implement them.

"This reflects the human rights principle that those in authority bear responsibility for institutional practices that lead to violations," it stressed.

To give more teeth to the law, the CHR recommended refining the penal provisions in Section 3 of the law to impose liability only on those who willfully and knowingly commit violations, while expressly protecting employees who act in good faith or without the authority to discharge patients or release cadavers.

Section 3 of RA 9439 states: “Any officer or employee of the hospital or medical clinic responsible for releasing patients, who violates the provisions of this Act shall be punished by a fine of not less than Twenty thousand pesos (P20,000), but not more than Fifty thousand pesos (P50,000, or imprisonment of not less than one month, but not more than six months, or both such fine and imprisonment, at the discretion of the proper court.”

"The CHR further proposes that hospitals, as juridical entities, be held administratively accountable for institutional policies or practices that result in hospital detention, ensuring that sanctions reach the level where decisions are actually made," it said.

At the same time, it called for a graduated system of administrative sanctions, such as suspension, mandatory compliance audits, or probationary monitoring -- before resorting to license revocation -- to safeguard fairness and due process while still deterring violations.

"Moreover, the Commission urges the inclusion of explicit provisions guaranteeing victims access to separate civil and administrative remedies for damages, ensuring full redress for patients and families alongside penal sanctions," it added.

By strengthening RA 9439, a 2007 law, the CHR said that indigent patients would be spared from hospital detention especially since it "continues to disproportionately affect indigent patients, penalizing poverty by depriving patients and even families of liberty at moments of illness, grief, and vulnerability."