FOLLOWING her viral post regarding her husband and his alleged lack of benefits from the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth), Maria Lourdes Sulit is set to meet with PhilHealth President and Chief Executive Officer Dr. Edwin Mercado.
In a radio interview, PhilHealth spokesman Dr Israel Pargas said Sulit will be meeting Mercado to discuss the case of her husband, who died in the hospital.
"Our P/CEO is set to meet with the wife of the patient to discuss what actions and other forms of assistance may still be provided to them," said Pargas.
In her now viral post on social media, Maria Lourdes Sulit bared that she was shocked after finding out that her husband was not eligible for PhilHealth benefits because he was confined for less than 24 hours.
Sulit's late husband suffered from brain hematoma with his hospital bill reaching P200,000 in less than 24 hours.
Sulit said her late husband was a "lifelong member" of PhilHealth and that he "paid faithfully throughout his working years."
According to Pargas, there are available benefit packages for the patient even if he failed to meet the 24-hour confinement rule.
"We have benefits for cases such as someone died in less than 24 hours. We also have packages assigned in less than two days or after. Maybe the hospital is not too familiar with it, so they did not honor the benefit," said Pargas.
In particular, he said the patient and his family would have received between P70,000 to more than P100,000.
"We have available packages. For the surgery alone, they may get around P73,000 to P108,000," said Pargas.
Given the availability of benefit packages, the PhilHealth official said they are now looking to directly reimburse the amount to his family.
"We will directly give it to our member or his relatives, in this case. Whatever amount he is entitled to, we will provide it to them. It will be in the form of reimbursement instead of deduction," said Pargas. (Anton Banal/SunStar Philippines)
