PHILIPPINE Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) president and chief executive officer Dante Gierran on Friday, October 16, 2020, assured that the Philippine Red Cross (PRC) will get paid for the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) tests charged to the state insurer.

"One thing is certain, we have an outstanding payment to Red Cross. One thing is sure also, PhilHealth will settle them because we have money for that," Gierran said in a television interview.

PRC announced Thursday, October 15, that it has stopped testing PhilHealth beneficiaries for Sars-CoV-2, the virus the causes Covid-19, because PhilHealth has yet to pay over P930 million in reimbursement claims.

Gierran said it was possible that the amount is lower because they have sought to reduce the testing fee to P3,409 from P3,500.

"Before I came, P3,500 per testing. Then, because of the decreasing cost lately, it is now just P3,409," said Gierran.

On Thursday, the PRC said they had to make the difficult decision to stop tests chargeable to PhilHealth because they need funds to replenish the testing kits for its laboratories.

"The PRC needs the resources to procure test kits and reagents from China. The PRC cannot commit to these orders unless it has the finances to pay for the orders. This is what makes PhilHealth’s settlement of its outstanding obligations critical," PRC added.

PRC laboratories represent 26 percent of the national test output for Covid-19. On October 6, PRC reached a milestone of conducting a cumulative total of one million tests from its 21 laboratories nationwide.

More than four million individuals have been tested for Sars-CoV-2 in the country as of October 14, 2020. (HDT/SunStar Philippines)