A PHILIPPINE Health Insurance Corporation in Davao Region (Philhealth-Davao) official urges its members to not just simply register for Philhealth, but to also avail the benefits they can get from the Konsultang Sulit at Tama (Konsulta) program.
Filbert Bryan Sollesta, field operations division chief for Philhealth-Davao, said during the Media Forum at Habi at Kape on January 25, that the public must know how to utilize the benefits of using the Konsulta program.
To avail of Konsulta program, first, a Philhealth member will go to a Philhealth-accredited and Konsulta-accredited provider and fill in the needed data. In this step, they will register themselves and their dependents. Then, a member brings his Authorization Transaction Code (ATC) for the first patient encounter (FPE). Once registered, the member is now eligible to avail of Konsulta Program benefits.
“So puwede na po silang magpakonsulta, masakit ba’ng tiyan nila (They may avail of consultations after, for instance, if they have stomach aches), they can go to our doctor to have themselves checked and kung kinakailangan silang i-test sa (if they needed to be tested at our) laboratory it can be done and there will be regular medicines given to them,” Sollesta said.
“Kailangan po tayong tumawid and avail of the first patient encounter or we call in normal terms, health profiling,” he added.
Philhealth defines FPE as an initial stage of registration for Konsulta program whereby a primary care worker “takes and/or updates the basic health data of an eligible beneficiary to identify their health risks.”
As of October 2022, according to Philhealth, 92.49 percent of the Davao region population has been registered, tallying 5,042,181 people, including dependents. About 520,000 members and dependents were registered for the Konsulta program.
For this year, Philhealth-Davao targets to reach 2.7 million members to register for the program.
The Konsulta program aims to extend health care benefits and assessments such as initial and follow-up consultations, selected laboratory tests, drugs and medicines as needed by the patients and as recommended by their primary care physician.
Meanwhile, Sollesta said information campaigns, especially patronizing Konsulta program benefits, are one of the main challenges for the organization.
“We are intensifying our education campaign when it comes to members... akala nila (they thought) registration is already enough (to avail Konsulta program),” he said.
In Davao City, there are 24 hospitals and health centers accredited for the Konsulta program. Members can visit https://www.philhealth.gov.ph/partners/providers/institutional/map/ for the list of accredited hospitals. ICE