{"id":264874,"date":"2020-08-11T07:50:48","date_gmt":"2020-08-11T11:50:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=264874"},"modified":"2020-08-11T07:50:48","modified_gmt":"2020-08-11T11:50:48","slug":"poor-it-legal-systems-pave-way-for-corruption-at-philhealth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/08\/11\/poor-it-legal-systems-pave-way-for-corruption-at-philhealth\/","title":{"rendered":"Poor IT, legal systems pave way for corruption at PhilHealth"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Greco<\/a>
Belgica said the IT system issue exposes about PHP2 to PHP3 billion that PhilHealth reimbursed weekly to fraudulent transaction schemes such as insurance claims padding, payments to non-existing or ghost patients, and the use of fake receipts, among others. (File Photo By Pacc888 – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 The cause of the alleged systemic corruption and anomalies in the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) are the agency\u2019s lack of validation mechanism in its IT (information technology) system and a corrupt and slow legal system, the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC) said Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cAng<\/em>\u00a0IT system\u00a0na ginagamit ng<\/em>\u00a0PhilHealth\u00a0ngayon<\/em>\u00a0has no validation mechanism\u00a0kaya nama-<\/em>manipulate\u00a0ng empleyado at<\/em>\u00a0hospital\u00a0dahil hindi tsini-<\/em>check ng PhilhHealth\u00a0kung totoo ang mga<\/em>\u00a0claims\u00a0sa kanila<\/em>\u00a0(The current IT system used by PhilHealth has no validation system, that\u2019s why it can be manipulated by some employees and hospitals because PhilHealth cannot check if the claims are true),\u201d PACC Commissioner Greco Belgica told the Senate Committee of the Whole.<\/p>\n

Due to the lack of validation mechanism, Belgica said the PhilHealth keeps on paying \u201cna parang tanga sa mga<\/em>\u00a0hospital\u00a0habang ginagago naman ang tao<\/em>\u00a0(like a fool to hospitals while the public is being duped).\u201d<\/p>\n

Belgica said the IT system issue exposes about PHP2 to PHP3 billion that PhilHealth reimbursed weekly to fraudulent transaction schemes such as insurance claims padding, payments to non-existing or ghost patients, and the use of fake receipts, among others.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, he said PhilHealth\u2019s lengthy legal process of investigating complaints made it possible for erring agency officials and hospitals to get away with their shenanigans.<\/p>\n

Under the current system in PhilHealth, complaints have to be filed in regional offices, after which the regional legal services team forward the complaint to the Fact-Finding Investigation and Enforcement Department.<\/p>\n

Only then it will be forwarded to the agency\u2019s Prosecution Department, where an arbitration group will tackle the dispute and be submitted to the PhilHealth board for approval, he said.<\/p>\n

“Sa haba ng sistema na ‘yan, ang dami nang paraan para harangin mo ang mga kaso<\/em>\u00a0(Due to the length of the process, there will be many opportunities to block the cases),\u201d Belgica said, noting the backlog of cases filed by PhilHealth against erring hospitals.<\/p>\n

The PACC official suggested several solutions and action plan to rid PhilHealth of its corruption woes.<\/p>\n

He said that chief among them is to improve PhilHealth\u2019s IT system and infrastructure by establishing an external validation mechanism.<\/p>\n

He pointed out that PhilHealth does not need the additional PHP2 billion its officials claimed it needed to upgrade its IT system as several government financial institutions \u2014 like the Land Bank of the Philippines and the Development Bank of the Philippines \u2014 as well as private companies have offered solutions to this problem \u201cat no cost to government.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPero hindi nila inaksyonan dahil maaapektuhan ang kanilang mga pinagkakakitaan<\/em>\u00a0(But they did not act on it because it would affect the source of their spoils),” Belgica said, referring to unscrupulous PhilHealth officials and staff.<\/p>\n

He said the agency\u2019s legal process should also be simplified, and suggested that investigations should be conducted by an independent body outside of PhilHealth in order to focus on the cases and file the necessary charges against everybody involved in the fraudulent schemes.<\/p>\n

Belgica also suggested the suspension of all officials involved \u2014 from the Board, the executive committee up to the regional directors \u2014 pending the conduct of investigations, and if needed, the appointment of an officer-in-charge (OIC) to oversee the agency\u2019s day-to-day operations.<\/p>\n

Lastly, he assured that PACC, along with the task force created by President Rodrigo Duterte, will continue its comprehensive investigation into the alleged corruption within PhilHealth.<\/p>\n

\u201cMula ulo hangang paa, tinitingnan namin lahat ng dinadaanan nila. Wala kaming palulusutin at wala kaming didiinan. Yung totoo lang ang ilalabas namin at kakasuhan<\/em>\u00a0(From head to toe, we will look where the corruption goes. We will never condone anyone, nor will we implicate anybody. We will expose and charge only those who are truly guilty),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He also asked the support of PhilHealth employees in unmasking corrupt officials and personnel in the agency, warning that their silence is also to be blamed in the widespread and systemic corruption.<\/p>\n

\u201cKapag may nakawang nangyayari at hindi ka umimik, ang tawag sayo kasabwat<\/em>\u00a0(If a crime is being committed and you remain silent, they call you an accomplice),\u201d Belgica said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 The cause of the alleged systemic corruption and anomalies in the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) are the agency\u2019s …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":226842,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-264874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-jose-cielito-reganit","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264874","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\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264874"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264874\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":264879,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264874\/revisions\/264879"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}