THE Provincial Government, through the Negros Occidental Language and Information Technology Center (NOLITC), signed a partnership agreement with Medstar Philippines Healthcare Information Management (HIM) Inc. for the implementation of medical billing and coding courses in the province.
NOLITC Vocational School Administrator Ma. Cristina Orbecido, during the memorandum of agreement (MOA) signing at the Provincial Capitol in Bacolod City Wednesday, said the partnership mainly aims to provide Billing and Coding Specialist Course, and Certified Professional Coder Course to qualified scholars.
Funded by the Office of the Governor under the Training for Work Scholarship Program, Orbecido said the training will initially cover 25 recipients who will be trained by specialists from the United States.
“We will be the first in the Philippines to partner with Medstar in rolling out this training program,” Orbecido said, adding that this is part of the campaign of the governor to globalize education and create more employment opportunities for Negrenses.
Recruitment of potential scholars will start after the agreement signing.
Qualified applicants for coders are nursing graduates, or even undergraduates while graduates of bookkeeping and accountancy as well as teachers may apply as billers.
They will be trained for 200 hours, Orbecido said.
She added that since only licensed and certified coders and billers can rollout the program, the province tapped the services of Medstar Philippines.
Two-day sessions per week will involve online teaching by the Medstar team while on other days, sessions will be facilitated by NOLITC.
“The program provides 100 percent scholarship to qualified scholars,” Orbecido said. “They will have US certification if they pass the training.”
Under the agreement, the Provincial Government will shoulder 70 percent of the training expenses amounting to about P50,000 and P80,000 for billing and coding courses, respectively.
The remaining 30 percent will be the counterpart of Medstar, which will go back to the province as additional revenue.
Medstar Philippines is an offshore provider of HIM services and human resource development located at the province-owned Negros First Cyber Centre in Bacolod City.
Its president Judilyn Cañete said their company chose Negros Occidental because of the potential of the province’s talent pool.
She said that to invite more employment to come to the province, there is a need to educate first the workforce about the medical billing and coding courses.
“There are many employment opportunities waiting both locally and internationally thus, we will continue to train Negrenses” Cañete said, adding that after finishing the courses the 25 recipient-scholars will then be trained to become trainers.
In US, salary rate for medical billing and coding is pegged at P35,000 to P80,000.
The Medstar Philippines official said that US Department of Labor projects a 22 percent growth in the HIM sector, particularly in medical billing and coding, in 2026.
“As long as America needs us, let’s not stop training Negrenses and we will be the key hub in the world,” she said.
Cañete cited that two years ago United Health Care, one of the biggest HIM companies in America, visited the province, but there were no trained talents at the time yet.
“Once knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) investors know that we already have trained coders and billers, they will surely come here. Inviting them is part of our program in countryside development,” she added.
Governor Alfredo Marañon Jr., who was also present at the MOA signing, said the partnership is a welcome development as it will not only boost employment opportunities for Negrenses, but also provide them the chance to earn more.
“We need to have proper training to gain more,” he added.