PhilHealth covers prenatal care for normal child birth

CEBU, Philippines - To ensure safer pregnancy for expecting women, the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) made prenatal care a key component in its benefit package for normal child birth.

Prenatal care is important not just for pregnant women but also for their unborn babies. Maternal difficulties such as diabetes and high blood pressure which are harmful both to the mother and the child may be detected earlier through prenatal visits with a skilled or trained health care provider. Constant check-up and monitoring during these visits ensure a healthier pregnancy and delivery for both the mother and child.

Members may avail themselves of P1,500 as prenatal care benefit covering drugs and medicines, laboratory tests and ancillary procedures. Reimbursement for prenatal expenses is generally paid to the member. But corresponding official receipts for the procedures and/or drugs and medicines availed of must be submitted in support of the claim.

Prenatal care in lying-in clinics has been an integral part PhilHealth’s maternity care package. But it was only with the recent expansion of its normal delivery package that expenses for prenatal care in hospitals also became reimbursable. This is PhilHealth’s way of encouraging pregnant women to really undergo prenatal care in support of the Department of Health’s safe motherhood campaign. — /WAB   (FREEMAN NEWS)