MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) has racked up unsettled bills totalling P6 billion, leaving private hospitals struggling to get paid while facing the daunting task of combating COVID-19.
“Many of our members are complaining because PhilHealth has not paid them. This P6 billion are for the services rendered to patients and the hospitals have spent for it so they should be paid,” Private Hospitals Association of the Philippines (PHAPi) president Jose Rene de Grano told the Kapihan sa Manila Bay yesterday.
Grano noted that one of the reasons that PhilHealth usually gives them is that documents submitted by hospitals are “deficient.”
But even after a hospital had completed the required documents, he said it could still not get its reimbursement claims from the state insurer.
The PHAPi president said many private hospitals are now struggling with their daily operations because of PhilHealth‘s delayed payments and appealed to the government to help them.
Unlike public health facilities which can get assistance from the government, private hospitals rely only on their patients to survive, he pointed out.
In order to maintain their operations, many private hospitals have been forced to downsize their workforce, he said. Others are implementing staggered working hours, he added.
“Our problem now is the manpower complement. We are not like the public hospitals that we can expand anytime because they have the support of the government,” Grano said.