CCMC posts rise in income in 2015

CEBU, Philippines - The Cebu City Medical Center announced yesterday that its revenue has increased in 2015 following a challenging year that succeeded an earthquake that pushed the hospital out of its original building.

CCMC is operating currently at the Bureau of Fire Protection-7 compound.

The hospital’s administrator, Atty. Rey Chris Panugaling, credits the increase partly to strict monitoring and collection of claims. Numbers reportedly rose starting in July last year.

“We check all promissory notes. We check all PhilHealth (Philippine Health Insurance Corporation) and CHAMP (City Hospitalization and Medicines Program) receivables from PCSO (Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office.) We started to write demand letters to them, to PCSO, CHAMP, and then they were able to provide payments to the hospital,” he said.

Another reason, he said, are the two long-time programs of PhilHealth that the hospital adopted last year – the No Balance Billing (NBB) and Point of Care (POC). These were established in July last year following dialogues between PhilHealth and city government officials with the hospital management.

The POC system applies to all indigents who are not beneficiaries of PhilHealth. The hospital personnel themselves will register the patient to the agency.

Under the NBB, medical expenses will be covered by PhilHealth for registered indigents, including lifetime members or senior citizens who are discharged with payables.

“The hospital will not let them pay anymore while the patient is not demanded to pay any single centavo,” Panugaling said.

Patients who are able to avail of the two programs, medical necessities like drugs and laboratories will be paid for by the city government. The amount of hospitalization is charged against PhilHealth.

In some cases, Panugaling said, the patient’s hospital charge is lower compared to the corresponding PhilHealth monetary benefit that the city can receive in return.

Numbers

Since July last year, numbers showed consistent rise.

From P9.1 million in July, it rose to P10.9 million in August), P11.8 million in September, P12.2 million in October, P11.2 million in November, and P12.2 million in December.

In the months prior, revenue only reached P6 million.

“This is the proof that these policies and programs of PhilHealth are very much effective and advantageous to the hospital and also to the patients. The management took the risk to implement, that is why we have this sort of revenue,” he said.

As of last year, 90.5 percent of the hospital’s patients were PhilHealth beneficiaries with at least 1,165 indigents enrolled to the POC system from July to December 2015.

As an effect, Panugaling said, they can procure more equipment with higher revenues.

“The money can also be placed in the medical trust fund and can be used for improvement of facilities. It can also benefit the city government as a whole since. Eventually, this will mean lesser subsidy to be given to the hospital. If this continues, we can also have fiscal autonomy later on,” he added.

Panugaling also disclosed that CCMC has used P218.1 million (87.72 percent) of its budget – P163.2 million (84.98 percent) of the P192 million for personnel services and P54.9 million (97.03 percent) of the P56.5 million for maintenance and other operating expenditures.

In previous years, budget utilization reached 50 to 60 percent.

In 2015, CCMC was allotted P297 million and in 2014, its had a budget of P249 million. For both years, P60 million was subsidized by the city government.

Admissions

In 2014, there were 6,409 patients admitted at CCMC but the number went to 5,091 the following year.

Dr. Anton Oliver Reposar II, director for medical services, said more patients were admitted in 2014 because the hospital could only accommodate non-critical cases after the October 2013 earthquake. Patients with non-critical cases did not have to stay long, thus, the hospital could accommodate more.

“In 2015, when the hospital system was more stable, we already admitted critical (related cases of) patients who would stay longer since their sickness were more complicated,” he said.   (FREEMAN)