P518-M medical aid given to over 16K patients in June: PCSO

“The agency has already spent PHP518,626,694 million, an increase of 13 percent compared with the same period last year,” PCSO General Manager Alexander Balutan said in a statement on Thursday. (Photo: Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office)

MANILA — The Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) has extended PHP518 million worth of medical assistance to 16,541 patients in June.

“The agency has already spent PHP518,626,694 million, an increase of 13 percent compared with the same period last year,” PCSO General Manager Alexander Balutan said in a statement on Thursday.

The top three natures of requests include confinement with 5,120 patients, an increase 18.4 percent compared with the same period last year; request for medicines with 5,088 patients at 19.4 percent; and chemotherapy with 3,582 patients at 13.2 percent.

“As for spending, the agency already spent PHP194,466,480 million for confinement, PHP160,590,803 million for chemotherapy, P84,478,960 million for requests for medicines, PHP47,684,600 million for implant/prosthesis/medical devices, and PHP19,502,851 million for laboratory and diagnostic procedures,” Balutan added.

Other requests include radiation treatment, surgery, laser treatment, medical appliances, dialysis (hemodialysis and peritoneal), blood, and others.

The PCSO Charter, or RA 1169, particularly on revenue allocation, provides that the revenue of the PCSO shall be allocated to 55 percent for prize fund (payment of prizes), 30 percent for charity fund (various charity programs and service) and 15 percent as operating fund (maintenance and operating expenses).

“Thirty percent of PCSO revenues automatically goes to the Charity Fund, which pays for the free hospitalization and medicines of indigent patients and other medical services such as chemo and dialysis treatments, among others,” Balutan said.

“That is why sales coming from Lotto, digit games, and Small Town Lottery (STL) games are very important. The higher the sales, the more we can help many people,” he added.

Balutan admitted that PCSO always exceeds its corporate operating budget (COB) for charity fund due to the increasing beneficiaries of PCSO.

Based on a Commission on Audit (COA) report in 2016, the total actual expenses of medical assistance program of PCSO exceeded its approved annual budget by PHP4.837 billion.

But he assured that by the end of the year, all the excess operation funds and unclaimed prize money shall be reverted back to the charity fund.

“PCSO is not violating any law and cognizant of its obligations and responsibilities,” he said.

Meanwhile, Dr. Larry Cedro, assistant general manager for Charity Sector, confirmed that there’s really a spike in terms of the number of individuals asking assistance from PCSO.

“If we are to compare 2016 to 2017 provision of assistance, there’s a 24-percent increase in terms of individuals. We recognize the observation raised by COA, as a matter of fact, if we compute the increase in terms of amount disbursed made by PCSO, there’s an increase of roughly 1 percent,” said Cedro during the Committee on Games and Amusement meeting of the House of Representatives last June 27 headed by its Committee Chairman Rep. Gus Tambunting.

Cedro explained though that while measures are being adopted to abide by COA’s observation, the critical thing here is that even PCSO has established parameters, the individuals asking assistance from PCSO continue to increase.

“Being an agency dependent on public trust, it is not easy for us to turn away individuals. What was recommended for us by COA is to have instrumental budget for that purpose in order to address the excess in budget,” he said.

At present, PCSO is discouraging patients or relatives to ‘appeal’ for additional grants once they have reached the maximum approved medical assistance.