CAGAYAN de Oro Second District Representative Rufus Rodriguez has filed a House resolution urging the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (Philhealth) "to settle at least P18 billion in unpaid reimbursement claims of accredited hospitals throughout the country."
In his Resolution 970, Rodriguez quoted claims of the Philippine Hospitals Association of the Philippines (PHAP) that the state-owned Philhealth owed its members P14 billion as of December 2018 and P4 billion at the end of 2019.
PHAP is composed of 733 hospitals.
"This is very urgent especially because we are still facing this Covid-19 pandemic and we all need the full operations of our hospitals with the necessary medical personnel. We don't want our hospitals to close, downscale services nor lay off medical personnel because of nonpayment of claims by PHilheath," Rodriguez said.
The Kagay-anon lawmaker said as an offshoot of financial difficulties, "hospitals are retrenching some of their employees to ensure their sustainability."
"As a result of unpaid claims, PHAP members have signified their intention 'to hold back or hold in abeyance' their accreditation with Philhealth, which would be very detrimental to the Filipino people," Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez noted that Philhealth has repeatedly denied that it owed hospitals large amounts in unpaid claims.
The resolution also cited complaints from certain hospitals in Mindanao that they "have been stripped of accreditation over pending cases, mostly in connection with alleged 'upcasing,' which is the practice of declaring that a patient has a different ailment to get higher reimbursements."
Rodriguez asked the House of Representatives to express its collective sense urging Philhealth to settle the hospitals' unpaid claims.