House oks Del Mar's hospital bill

Hospital owners who are detaining patients and corpses for failure of relatives to settle medical bills will soon be fined P5,000 to P15,000 after a proposed bill seeking to penalize them has been approved by the House of Representatives.

Representative Raul del Mar, who is one of the authors of the bill, said the proposal has already been transmitted to the Senate for deliberation and eventual passage into a full law.

The bill seeks to penalize violators, amending Article 267 of the Revised Penal Code and making the act of detaining indigents a crime of illegal detention, which carries a penalty of life imprisonment to death.

The proposed act also imposes a fine of not less than P 5,000 but not more than P 15,000 or imprisonment of not less than one month but not more than 6 months to revocation of permit to operate. Del mar said in the consolidated bill, that the patient's failure to settle medical expenses must not be a ground for detention in the hospital.

" Such inhuman act has no place in a democratic society. We should stop this practice once and for all,' Del Mar said.

He said it is common knowledge that due to the difficulty of availing free services being offered by government hospitals, indigent patients are forced to transfer to private hospitals so that their family can get immediate medical attention not minding the bills that may come later.

"With the passage of the bill, fully or partially recovered patients who wish to leave the hospital but are financially incapable, will be released with proper medical certificate and pertinent papers, upon the execution of a promissory note covering the unpaid obligation," Del Mar said

The bill further provides that the promissory note shall be secured by a mortgage or by a guarantee of a co-maker who will be jointly and severally liable with the patient for the unpaid obligation. Other authors of the bill include Representatives Mayo Almario of Davao Orient5al and Justin Chipeco of Laguna. - Jasmin R Uy