PhilHealth eyeing release of second hospital reimbursement

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) is considering the release of a second tranche of the Interim Reimbursement Mechanism (IRM) or emergency cash advance to help hospitals with the needed liquidity to respond to the increasing number of COVID-19 patients.

It will also ask the hospitals to start liquidating the funds to be eligible for the second tranche as it reviews their utilization of the first IRM tranche.

The second tranche of IRM funds will be made available to hospitals administering to coronavirus patients, specifically those in high concentration areas such as the National Capital Region (NCR) and Regions III, IV and VII where bed capacity is already full or at critical level. The hospitals will be provided with cash advances equivalent to three months’ worth of claims based on their 2019 claims data.

In a statement, PhilHealth said the agency has released a total of P14.7 billion to 681 hospitals nationwide under its first wave, P7.6 billion or 52 percent of which went to private institutions. Almost P4.2 billion or 29 percent was released to the NCR, followed by Region IV-A (Calabarzon) at P1.2 billion or eight percent, and Region III (Central Luzon) at P1.1 billion or seven percent.

“PhilHealth assured the public that its funds are adequate and available to ensure that all patients, whether of COVID-19 or not, receive adequate care when needed without experiencing financial difficulty as mandated by the Universal Health Care Law,” it added.

According to the agency, the overall nationwide total COVID-19 admissions were a little over 50 percent with most admissions at Level 3 or apex referral hospitals.