DOH to study hospitals’ demand for blanket PhilHealth accreditation

The Private Hospitals Association of the Philippines (PHAP) may have abandoned its plan to hold a “hospital holiday” every month after the Department of Health (DOH) granted two of its three demands, but the problem is far from over.

The PHAP, in what looked like a reconciliatory move, has dumped the idea of holding “hospital holidays” after the DOH decided to provide additional assistance to its member hospitals to help them cope with the impending implementation of the Hospital Detention Law.

But the third demand, the blanket accreditation to be given to all of its members by the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth), still hangs in the balance.

“We won’t hold ‘hospital holidays’ because two of our three requests were granted. I think it’s fair enough,” said PHAP spokesman Dr. Rustico Jimenez in an ambush interview during the association’s 2007 national convention and exhibition Friday. 

PHAP’s requests were contained in a resolution that it submitted to the DOH.

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III claimed that PHAP’s request for blanket PhilHealth accreditation to be extended to all of its members still has to be studied.

The PHAP has asked the DOH to reinstate its accreditation as one of PhilHealth’s nationally accredited health care organization so that its member hospitals no longer need to get separate PhilHealth accreditation.

“PhilHealth will be having a board meeting on Dec. 14 and I will bring that (blanket accreditation issue) up,” he said.

The DOH has included in the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) of Republic Act 9439 or the Hospital Detention Law provisions that will reduce the prison terms of violators to six months from 20 years as provided for by the Revised Penal Code.

The DOH has also increased the hospital or medical assistance of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) to indigent patients from P20,000 to P100,000.

Composed of 354 hospitals, the PHAP threatened last May to hold a two-day “hospital holiday” every month in protest of RA 9439.

The law, which imposes stiffer penalties on hospitals that detain patients with unpaid bills, has not been implemented pending the formulation of its IRR.

PHAP complained that the law strips them of protection against patients who are not able to pay their bills.

The group claimed that they cannot rely on the patients’ promissory notes because only 10 percent of them actually come back to pay their bills.

Jimenez said 45 PHAP hospitals have reportedly accumulated P650 million in promissory notes.

Under the plan, PHAP members were to admit only emergency cases while turning away consultations for two days monthly.

But the PHAP was not able to carry out its protest action after Duque managed to convince them to be part of the committee that would formulate the IRR for RA 9439.

According to Duque, aside from the upgraded medical assistance given by the PCSO, the DOH also agreed to distribute some 200 ambulances to small hospitals in the provinces, also as demanded by the PHAP.