CCMC to benefit from city's agreement with PhilHealth

CEBU, Philippines - Cebu City Medical Center is expected to also benefit from the agreement signed between the city government and the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation for the health insurance coverage of 30,000 poor residents of the city.

Hospital chief Eduardo Sedoripa said the city-owned hospital will soon be receiving refunds from PhilHealth for attending to the medical needs of the indigent families that will be confined at the CCMC. The procedure is that PhilHealth will shoulder part of the bills of the patients confined at the city hospital.

Doctors at the CCMC said the move to enroll for free the indigent families to PhilHealth would be of great help to them once they need medical care at any government or private hospitals.

Sedoripa said CCMC’s collections may also increase because of the refunds from the PhilHealth.

The Cebu City government will be spending P18 million for the enrolment of some 30,000 indigent families to PhilHealth at P600 each family until the end of this year.

The memorandum of agreement between the city and PhilHealth provides that only P1,200 is needed so that each poor family will be enrolled to PhilHealth for the whole year. Half of the amount will be paid by the city while the other half will be shouldered by the national government.

Cathy Yso, head of the Department of Social Welfare and Services (DSWS) explained that one of the bases in choosing the beneficiaries is that the monthly income of both the husband and wife should not exceed P10,000.

Because there are 38,045 families that were recommended by the barangay officials to become beneficiaries, the names shall be evaluated and to be trimmed down by 8,045.

Mayor Michael Rama advised those families who will not be admitted to the program not to worry because the city has another medical program by directly giving them medical assistance through the so-called City Hall Medical Assistance Program. —(FREEMAN)