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PhilHealth clarifies over PHP8000 price for COVID-19 test kits

Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) explained why their COVID-19 test kits were packaged at over PHP8,000 after being probed by senators.
The Senate recently questioned the state insurer on why the price of their test kits was valued at PHP8,150 when other test kits are only worth PHP2,700.
According to PhilHealth president Ricardo Morales, the test kits were priced as such because during the initial outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), there was a high demand yet limited supply.
READ ALSO: DOH: Testing for coronavirus disease free of charge
“Ito naman kasing PHP8,000, kung binili ng hospital. Alam mo naman nung panahon na ‘yun, RITM lang ang nagte-test at yung capacity, iilan lang, kaya siyempre law of supply and demand,” he said in an interview on Dobol B sa News TV.
Morales added that there has been a drop in the prices after the private sector helped in increasing the availability of testing kits.
However, he also said that PhilHealth will be releasing an update rate for the COVID-19 test kits in a few days.
Tinitignan naminyung mga Statement of Account ng mga hospital kung magkano ang ginastos, so nare-refine natin ang ating pricing. Next week maglalabas kami ulit ng bagong case rate para sa testing at ito ay mas mababa, he said.
READ ALSO: Some OFWs say they did not enjoy benefits from PhilHealth

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