Robredo seeks volunteers for e-consultation program

MANILA, Philippines — Vice President Leni Robredo has called for volunteer health professionals for its free e-consultation program dubbed Bayanihan e-konsulta in Metro Manila, Cavite, Laguna, Rizal and Bulacan, collectively known as NCR Plus.

The Office of the Vice President (OVP)’s latest initiative aims to help decongest COVID-swamped hospitals in NCR Plus, which is under the strictest quarantine status until April 11.

“(We) call for volunteer doctors who will be available to do phone consultations for outpatient cases within NCR and surrounding areas covered by the ECQ (enhanced community quarantine),” Robredo wrote in her social media pages on Monday night.

The Vice President also called for volunteers who would receive and process requests concerning outpatient cases in NCR Plus and match them with volunteer doctors.

She said they are looking for volunteer telephone operators who have backgrounds in nursing or other health professions.

Interested individuals may fill out these forms: http://bit.ly/e-konsulta_doctors and http://bit.ly/e-konsulta_volunteers.

“With the help of volunteers, we thought of launching an initiative which will not only help indigent patients who can’t pay doctors, but also to lessen the number of people going to hospitals,” Robredo said.

She added that the OVP has consulted doctors and other experts during the Holy Week on how it could help amid the surge in COVID-19 cases.

P91 billion hospital claims paid

A total of P91.4 billion in hospital claims have been paid by the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. last year, according to the PhilHealth president.

Sen. Bong Go said PhilHealth president Dante Gierran reported that the agency had settled about P91.4 billion of hospital claims for 2020 during a recent meeting with key executive officials.

Gierran also disclosed that an estimated P3.7 billion worth of claims are currently being processed while another P5.2 billion is for further validation.

He said PhilHealth had already created a committee to make follow-ups, track the difference and reconcile the books of the hospitals.

Upon receiving the necessary reimbursements, private hospitals agreed to increase the number of COVID-19 beds by 50 percent in accordance with the directive of the Department of Health.

“Financial obligations must be settled on time in accordance with our regulations. Let us not allow the operation of hospitals to be affected due to lack of funding,” Go said in English and Filipino.

Senators had earlier urged PhilHealth to come up with a standard policy and guidelines to cover patients staying in hospital tents while waiting for admission.

Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri and Senators Sonny Angara, Nancy Binay, Sherwin Gatchalian, Grace Poe and Joel Villanueva said PhilHealth should be the voice of compassion and care for every patient in these trying times.

“It is but tragic that (PhilHealth) has been unable to respond and reach out to the already overburdened families of patients,” the senators said in a joint statement.

“We, therefore, urge PhilHealth president Dante Gierran to come up with a standard policy and guidelines to cover patients staying in hospital tents while waiting for admission,” they added.

With millions of lives at stake, the senators emphasized that they could not just be silent on reports that patients had to pay P1,000 per hour in hospital tents simply because PhilHealth would not cover their temporary stay.

Addressing backlogs

As this developed, the Anti-Red Tape Authority (ARTA) has vowed to help PhilHealth ensure that backlogs in the release of hospital claims would be addressed amid calls from hospitals for immediate action.

In a statement yesterday, the ARTA said the commitment was made by ARTA director general Jeremiah Belgica during the dialogue between PhilHealth and the Philippine Hospital Association (PHA) last Monday. – Cecille Suerte Felipe, Louella Desiderio, Edu Punay, Roel Pareño