Surgeon to head PhilHealth

MANILA, Philippines -  Surgeon Hildegardes Dineros is taking the reins of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. after President Duterte nominated him to the post and an election by the PhilHealth board last Tuesday.

Dineros, a bariatric and metabolic surgeon, plans to achieve universal healthcare coverage (UHC) for Filipinos. He also intends to lay policies that will ensure the coverage “equates with care.” 

“Achieving 100 percent coverage has many challenges. We could start with identifying those who are not yet covered and making sure that they use their PhilHealth benefits,” he told The STAR. 

The 56-year-old doctor also sees the need to “concretize” PhilHealth’s ID system through a “unified registration” to get the needed information even from non-members.

“We will try to augment, reinforce the way of registering because it is still lacking. We have to make it functional. I’m thinking of having an ID system from birth to death,” he said.

Deborah Sy, PhilHealth corporate secretary, said Dineros would first serve as an OIC-president “pending appointments and nomination to be made by the President of the Philippines and subsequent election by the newly appointed governing board.”

She added that four other doctors have been appointed members of the PhilHealth board: Ma. Jude de la Serna, (overseas Filipino migrant workers); Joan Cristine Reina Liban-Lareza (health care providers); Roy Ferrer (employer sector) and Roberto Salvador Jr. (formal economy).

Dineros, former Philippine Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery president, will be replacing Ramon Aristoza Jr. who is retiring this April. He is a graduate of the University of Santo Tomas.

He wanted to ensure that services are available to all members and their dependents, especially those in far-flung communities, by having a “convergence” of healthcare facilities and medical providers.

“We will initiate measures to improve and reorganize everything and focus on the convergence of stakeholders so that healthcare will be available to everyone. Our objective is to allow everyone to have access to services,” Dineros said.

The new PhilHealth chief is also the founder of Smile Forever Program and a fellow of the American College of Surgeons, the Philippine College of Surgeons and the Philippine Society of General Surgeons.

He is also a diplomate of the Philippine Board of Surgery and a fellow of various Philippine, Asian and American societies of bariatric and metabolic surgery, wound care, laparoscopy and endoscopy surgeons.