Growing health awareness buoys HMO sector growth

CEBU, Philippines - The growing health consciousness of most Filipinos has resulted to the positive growth of the health maintenance organization (HMO) industry, which is an innovation of the medical insurance product of life insurance companies.

Asalus Corp., manager for Central and Eastern Visayas Chito Recamadas said an HMO is a specific type of health care plan founded in the United States. Unlike traditional health coverage, an HMO sets out guidelines under which doctors can operate.

“I would say HMOs are better than the medical insurance because HMOs do not have inner limits like medical insurance companies do. For example, medical insurances set specific a (cap) limit for doctors’ professional fee, (room and others). While with HMOs, if your maximum benefit limit is P150, 000, you get the benefit (regardless if it’s for doctor’s fee, room rate or any other hospital expenses,) he told The Freeman.

With the mushrooming of HMOs in the country, Recamadas said the industry has established the Association of HMO in the Philippines (AHMOPHI,) which upholds the credibility of the industry by accepting only HMOs with “good standing and stable capitalization.”

HMOs are cheaper compared to traditional health insurance because it is able to negotiate for more affordable health care with its large quantities of patients and it eliminates treatments that HMOs see as unnecessary with regard to a specific client.

As for Asalus, Recamadas said the company conducts a one-on-one talk with their clients to help them define their needs before offering their HMO product brand, IntelliCare.

“We are really personalized. Our clients can save because we advise them to exclude the services that are unnecessary to them. Some say we are expensive but we say that we are not, if we consider the quality of our service,” he said.

Asalus Corp is registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission since November 1995 primarily as an HMO engaged in the delivery of managed healthcare services via comprehensive, systematic and prevention oriented health maintenance programs or plans. It opened its Manila and Cebu office simultaneously.

It is now one of the top three HMOs in the country with more than 1, 000 corporate accounts and a membership base approaching 450, 000. It has strategic alliances with 900 reputable hospitals, clinics, diagnostic centers and other first-class medical institutions manned by an affiliated pool of more than 13, 000 physicians and medical specialists.

Asalus has more than 100 corporate accounts in Cebu . It also has regional decentralized offices in Davao, Bacolod, Cagayan de Oro and Calamba, Laguna.