PhilHealth hikes package rate for hemodialysis

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) has increased its package rate for hemodialysis to P4,000 per session, the Department of Health (DOH) said yesterday.

The PhilHealth board has approved the increase from the current P2,600 per session.  

“The board’s approval also covered catheter insertion and blood transfusion payments that may be claimed separate from the main case rate for admission,” the DOH said in a statement.

DOH Secretary Ted Herbosa chairs the PhilHealth board of directors.

In a meeting held yesterday, the entire PhilHealth board discussed improving financial coverage for renal replacement therapy (RRT), which included hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis.

The board would later tackle a detailed PhilHealth circular and operationalization by PhilHealth management to ensure that the improved benefit can be claimed.

RRT covers options for dialysis that treat kidney failure. However, these treatments cannot fully cure but only extend the lives of end-stage kidney failure patients.

The DOH said PhilHealth is also improving financial coverage for primary care through another iteration of the regular nationwide “konsulta package,” giving incentives for early disease detection and prevention services.

It was in 2023 when the PhilHealth board approved the expansion of its coverage of hemodialysis from 90 to 156 sessions per year.

This has increased the annual benefit coverage of patients with chronic kidney disease stage 5 to P405,600 from P234,000.

In 2023, PhilHealth paid a total amount of P17.43 billion for hemodialysis claims alone.