‘Bills piled up’

CEBU, Philippines — Indigent patients may no longer be turned down when they bring Letters of Authority (LOA) from the Cebu City Government after the City Council last week approved the allocation of P2.4 million as payment for hospital dues from 2020 to 2023.

The City Government incurred the debt due to its City Hospitalization and Medicines Program (CHAMP), which resulted in CHAMP-accredited hospitals turning down patients endorsed by the program because of the unpaid dues that have piled up over the past three years.

CHAMP is the City’s frontline office that assists qualified indigent patients in the payment of their hospital bills by providing LOAs that the patients will show to partner hospitals.

During their regular session last week, City Councilor Noel Wenceslao, council committee on budget and finance chairman, authored a resolution that set aside the amount, which is for Chong Hua Hospital (P1.731 million), Adventist Hospital (P352,476), Perpetual Succor Hospital (P60,000), Cebu Velez Hospital (P92,647), Sacred Heart Hospital (P372,069).

Cebu City Medical Center (P135,000), Guba Community Hospital (P3,912), Asian Renal Care (P5,803), Saint Vincent General Hospital (P18,430) Cebu Doctors University Hospital (P309,142), Nephrology Center of Cebu City Dialysis (P309,142), and PVC Dialysis Company (P15,950).

The P2.4 million will be charged to the Supplemental Budget 2 under the prior years’ Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses of the Office of the City Administrator.

During the discussion prior to the approval, City Councilor Nestor Archival Sr. noted that the resolution only lists the total debts per hospital, without specifying the names of the patients whose unpaid bills belonged to.

“I don’t think this is a good report because we only get the numbers; we don’t have the names,” he said.

Councilor Rey Gealon, however, explained that revealing the names of the patients associated with these medical bills would violate Republic Act 10173 (Data Privacy Act), which protects personal data and upholds the privacy of hospital patients.

He said that although it is the Cebu City Government that is paying for the medical expenses of these patients, it is not for public disclosure, but should rather be discussed in a closed-door executive session.

Gealon assured that the City Government is aware of the names of these patients, as indicated in the records, specifically through the Letter of Authorization (LOA).

City Councilor Jocelyn Pesquera also said that the unpaid medical bills must be settled, as they are a contributing factor why hospitals are turning down patients endorsed by the City Government.

“Once we are able to settle them, maybe by then, Chong Hua will accept patients referred by the City Government,” she said.

City Councilor Franklyn Ong also said that instead of helping patients with their bills, CHAMP now functions as a “refunding office” for paid medical bills, as some hospitals no longer honor the CHAMP-issued LOAs due to past dues.

Wenceslao said this is the very reason he is pushing for the approval of the resolution, so that hospitals can be paid and can already start accommodating again patients and beneficiaries of CHAMP.

Ong, however, expressed concerns over the lack of a Memorandum of Agreement between the Cebu City Government and the hospitals to ensure that this will be the final resolution once the debts are paid.

“Kay muabot gyud sa akong opisina nga naay uban nga refund na lagi nya wala man silay kwarta ikabayad. ‘Nya kinsay mubayad para i-refund? Mao ng muduol sila nato tanan para magpa-advance,” he said.

City Councilor Francis Esparis then sought clarification on why the medical bills have piled up and remained unpaid since 2003.

Wenceslao said only CHAMP could answer this but had learned that that was due to documents not submitted to CHAMP, which forced the office to issue a “Letter of Guarantee” instead.

“So wala gyud ma-process ang ilahang bayad for a long time,” Wenceslao said.

With Archival abstaining from voting, the council approved Wenceslao’s resolution.

To recall, it was on Nov. 13 that the City Council sought an investigation into the practices violating the Anti-Hospital Deposit Law. The legislative body also requested hospital administrators to revisit their hospital institutions’ mandate, following complaints of patients allegedly being turned down by hospitals due to lack of deposits.

It came following a privilege speech by Gealon, who revealed that there were facilities that have either refused or discouraged the acceptance of government assistance.

During his speech, he showed a document of a particular hospital that is marked “Not for Government Assistance”. — /RHM (FREEMAN)