{"id":235824,"date":"2019-10-25T14:19:57","date_gmt":"2019-10-25T18:19:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=235824"},"modified":"2019-10-25T14:19:57","modified_gmt":"2019-10-25T18:19:57","slug":"hospital-groups-threat-crude-blackmail-attempt-philhealth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/10\/25\/hospital-groups-threat-crude-blackmail-attempt-philhealth\/","title":{"rendered":"Hospital group\u2019s threat ‘crude blackmail attempt’: PhilHealth"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The PhilHealth chief also said he has talked to Jimenez and his group and agreed to work directly with each hospital to reconcile the backlog of insurance claims. (File Photo<\/a>: Philippine Health Insurance Corporation\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0— The Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) on Friday tagged the threat of a group of private hospitals to sever ties as a “crude blackmail attempt”.<\/p>\n

PhilHealth President and Chief Executive Officer Ricardo Morales said based on their talks with members of the Private Hospitals Association of the Philippines (PHAPi), its president Dr. Rustico Jimenez\u2019s threat of separation from the agency was devoid of truth.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no truth to that threat that there will be 600 hospitals that will pull out, all the hospitals we have talked to denied that they were going to pull out,\u201d Morales said in a press conference at Luxent Hotel in Quezon City.<\/p>\n

The PhilHealth chief also said he has talked to Jimenez and his group and agreed to work directly with each hospital to reconcile the backlog of insurance claims.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will reconcile our figures.\u00a0Kasi minsan yung kanila, iba rin yung amin<\/em>\u00a0(Because sometimes, our numbers differ from theirs),\u201d Morales said.<\/p>\n

In an open letter released on Monday, PHAPi \u2014with its 600 member hospitals\u2014 threatened to cut ties with PhilHealth through non-renewal of their accreditation by 2020 due to the state health insurance firm’s alleged non-payment of some PHP2.5-billion in claims.<\/p>\n

From January this year until Sept. 30, Morales said PhilHealth has paid a total of PHP75-billion to claimants.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, that is what we have to reconcile,\u00a0‘yung<\/em>\u00a0figures\u00a0nila<\/em>\u00a0and our figures tally.\u00a0Lahat naman ito ginagawa namin<\/em>\u00a0(their figures and ours tally. We\u2019re actually doing this) with all hospitals\u2014not only limited to this group,\u201d Morales said.<\/p>\n

When asked how much was left unpaid to PHAPi, PhilHealth official Arnel de Jesus said their numbers were broken down per hospital which required individual reconciliation with each establishment.<\/p>\n

\u201cKung ano yung numero ng ospital, pumunta sa amin at ipapakita natin din<\/em>\u00a0with full transparency\u00a0kung ano ang numero namin para<\/em>\u00a0makapag<\/em>-reconcile\u00a0kami<\/em>\u00a0(Whatever number the hospital came up with, they just need to approach us and we\u2019ll show with full transparency our numbers so that we can reconcile),\u201d de Jesus said.<\/p>\n

He acknowledged there is a backlog of unpaid claims but said these can be addressed through direct talks with PhilHealth.<\/p>\n

\u201cKailangan lang namin ipaliwanag nang maigi kung meron dapat ipaliwanag at kung bakit hindi nababayaran<\/em>\u00a0(We just need to explain clearly if there\u2019s something to be explained and why it\u2019s not yet paid),\u201d De Jesus said.<\/p>\n

\u201cTalaga namang may backlog kasi hindi perfect yung system,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Morales also acknowledged that there were issues with payments stemming from their efforts to modernize the PhilHealth system which they hope would eventually speed up their transactions as well as minimize fraud.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an issue that is not only confronting only these hospitals but the entire PhilHealth information system. Kasi we are adopting information technology (IT)\u00a0para madali ang pagbayad sa kanila<\/em>\u00a0(Because we are adopting IT to ease transactions),\u201d Morales said.<\/p>\n

He stressed that affected hospitals, instead of issuing threats or intimidations, should approach PhilHealth and have their issues directly addressed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWork directly with us and not to go to threats and intimidation. It will not work because it is putting the public in a predicament which they do not deserve,\u201d Morales said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— The Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) on Friday tagged the threat of a group of private hospitals to sever …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":204928,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-235824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-raymond-carl-dela-cruz","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235824"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235824\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":235825,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235824\/revisions\/235825"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}