The unpaid claims by the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (Phil Health) to different hospitals have reached Php12.9 billion.
The Corporation, however, denied that it owed Php86 billion to hospitals since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Shirley Domingo, PhilHealth vice president for corporate affairs, said that the P12.9-billion worth of claims are in different stages of processing.
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“There is no such thing as Php86 billion in claims, utang (debt) in claims,” Domingo said.
PhilHealth vice president said that of the PhP12.9 billion claims being processed, about 15 percent are COVID-19 claims.
She said that while regular claims are processed in 43 days the COVID claims remains an issue, but did not give the state insurer’s average turnaround time for the COVID-19 claims noting however that the state insurer would never reach a “zero-zero claims processing status” as it continues to process about 1 million claims a month.
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The PhilHealth official also clarified PhilHealth circular on the suspension of payments of claims (TSPC) stating hospitals and claimants should not be wary of the policy. She said the circular has been there since 2016 and provisions of these new circulars give them more protection.
President Rodrigo Duterte earlier called on the state insurer to settle its debt to hospitals as soon as possible as facilities continue to receive more patients as the COVID-19 pandemic rages on in the country. (AW)
