PhilHealth pays initial P100 million for remaining debt to Red Cross

MANILA, Philippines — The country's state insurer on Thursday said it has made a P100 million payment to the Philippine Red Cross for its half a billion remaining debt that had caused the organization to halt its coronavirus tests. 

Embattled Philippine Health Insurance Corp. had paid Red Cross a partial P500 million in October 27, out of the P1.1 billion in total. It came nearly two weeks after the humanitarian organization announced that it could no longer continue its COVID-19 tests as it would need PhilHealth's debt payment for buying new kits.  

PhilHealth in its announcement Thursday added that it would fast track its validation of claims for reimbursing COVID-19 tests done by the organization. 

Red Cross chairman and Sen. Richard Gordon had given a three-day deadline for the agency to settle its outstanding P561-million balance to prevent its debt from skyrocketing and cause again delays in the purchase of kits. 

Many sectors have been affected by Red Cross' decision, including OFWs and those in mega swabbing facilities, with government scrambling to resolve the impasse as the country's overall testing capacity had been largely affected. 

By the time it halted screenings, Red Cross has conducted over a million tests already out of the four million individuals tested for the virus. 

An independent group of researchers from the academe warned too that the halt in Red Cross screenings may not give an accurate picture of the coronavirus situation in the Philippines, with daily screenings falling to a three-month low. 

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque has since denied that government is solely reliant on Red Cross for the COVID-19 tests.

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But in a television interview on Wednesday, Roque admitted that such "somehow contributed because less testing, of course, means less numbers."

Philippine coronavirus cases are nearing 390,000 by the first week of November, with deaths now at over 7,400, while recoveries are almost at 350,000.