THE Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) assured the public that even if Covid-19 persists until next year and Covid-19-related claims continue to pile up at their office, Philhealth funds are still stable and that they could remain catering to other claims.
Dr. Marivic Pula-Malate, officer-in-charge and division chief of the Healthcare Delivery and Management Division of PhilHealth-Davao, said aside from strengthening its enrollment program and collection of members' contribution and increasing the premium rate next year to 3.5 percent from its current rate of three percent, other measures are also put in place to make sure that funds will be stable even if Covid-19 claims continue beyond this year.
"The Corporation is doing its best, we strengthen our monitoring of possible fraudulent claims like upcasing to Covid case," Pula-Malate said during a virtual press conference after its Handog Pasasalamat event recently.
PhilHealth, during the same event, presented its plans and targets for 2021 that include the enrollment of the other 10 percent of the projected 5.337 million population for next year, which are still not classified as either members or dependents.
PhilHealth-Davao also launched its Dropbox sa Barangay as part of their efforts to strengthen enrollment of unregistered individuals.
It also established a Group Enrollment Scheme that aims to enroll the individuals who belong to the informal sector through their organized groups. These organizations will be the ones to collect the premium contributions from its members and remit these to PhilHealth.
Meanwhile, as part of their measure to strengthen collection, PhilHealth announced its Online Employer Remittance where payment of premium contributions for employed individuals must be made through their Electronic Premium Remittance System (EPRS).
The use of the EPRS online payment also aims to provide faster acknowledgment of premium payments and immediate posting of employers' premium contributions. Full implementation of this system will be in January next year.
For the financially incapable members, the office advised them to proceed to the nearest Social Welfare and Development Office (SWDO) of their local government unit (LGU) so that they can undergo Means Test to be conducted by Licensed Social Worker and they can secure a Certificate of Indigency.
Persons with disability are also encouraged to register to their nearest SWDO of the LGU.
Pula-Malate also reiterated that their office has not yet received any complaints of upcasing relating to Covid-19, as they are strengthening their monitoring so that upcasing of any cases will be prevented.
"Wala pa po kaming na-receive na complaints on upcasing relating to Covid-19 cases both sa pasyente at sa health care provider but ang Covid case namin ang ginagawan talaga namin ng MPR or Medical Pre-payment Review so we can assure na walang makakalagpas sa amin na upcasing na cases in relation to Covid-19," said Pula-Malate, who also heads PhilHealth-Davao Accreditation and Quality Assurance Section.
She added that during the MPR, the data given by the healthcare providers are evaluated and analyzed to guarantee that upcasing is deterred.