{"id":273024,"date":"2020-10-26T23:08:43","date_gmt":"2020-10-27T03:08:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=273024"},"modified":"2020-10-26T23:08:43","modified_gmt":"2020-10-27T03:08:43","slug":"swab-tests-still-free-for-ofws-palace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/10\/26\/swab-tests-still-free-for-ofws-palace\/","title":{"rendered":"Swab tests still free for OFWs: Palace"},"content":{"rendered":"
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FILE: Medical personnel perform a swab test on returning overseas Filipino workers at the Palacio de Maynila along Roxas Boulevard in Malate, Manila on Sunday (May 10, 2020). (PNA photo by Avito Dalan)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Swab testing for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) remains free of charge, Malaca\u00f1ang said Monday following reports that some Filipinos arriving from abroad were asked to pay PHP20,000 for faster release of their coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) test results.<\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque assured that the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) will be shouldering the cost of all OFWs\u2019 reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests.<\/p>\n

\u201cLibre ang mga<\/em>\u00a0OFWs,\u00a0ang magbabayad po niyan<\/em>\u00a0OWWA (Testing for OFWs is free, the OWWA will pay for the cost),\u201d he said in a Palace press briefing.<\/p>\n

He said all OFWs\u2019 tests are subject to reimbursement by the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth).<\/p>\n

\u201cSubject\u00a0naman talaga po<\/em>\u00a0for reimbursement\u00a0ng<\/em>\u00a0PhilHealth\u00a0ang<\/em>\u00a0test to be given to OFWs,\u00a0at lahat naman po ng mga<\/em>\u00a0private labs providers know how they can collect from PhilHealth (Tests to be given to OFWs is really a subject for PhilHealth reimbursement, and all the private labs providers know how they can collect from PhilHealth),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

PhilHealth currently has an overdue balance of over PHP930 million to Philippine Red Cross (PRC) for Covid-19 testing of OFWs and other individuals.<\/p>\n

The state health insurer said it would settle its obligations to PRC by Monday.<\/p>\n

But even if the PhilHealth fails to pay the PRC, Roque reassured the public that there are many public and private laboratories capable of accepting Covid-19 swab samples including the Department of Health-Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (DOH-RITM) and Philippine General Hospital.<\/p>\n

\u201cDinadala natin iyan sa mga<\/em>\u00a0government laboratories\u00a0kagaya ng<\/em>\u00a0Lingad\u00a0diyan po sa<\/em>\u00a0Pampanga\u00a0dahil malaki rin ang kapasidad nila at mayroon ding mga<\/em>\u00a0government labs\u00a0na nagti<\/em>-test\u00a0diyan<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 RITM, PGH (We take them to government laboratories like Lingad in Pampanga because they also have a large capacity and there are also government labs that test there — RITM, PGH),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said PRC\u2019s decision to stop conducting tests that are being charged to the PhilHealth will not affect free testing for OFWs.<\/p>\n

\u201cMarami naman po, hindi dahilan para tuluyang matigil ang<\/em>\u00a0testing\u00a0ng mga<\/em>\u00a0OFWs\u00a0dahil tumigil ang<\/em>\u00a0testing\u00a0ng<\/em>\u00a0Red Cross,” he said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Roque also announced that the Department of Justice (DOJ) opined PhilHealth\u2019s advance payment for PRC\u2019s Covid-19 testing services required the approval of President Rodrigo Duterte.<\/p>\n

Under the memorandum of agreement (MOA), PhilHealth reportedly made an advance payment of PHP100 million to the PRC for Covid-19 testing services, despite Philippine laws mandating reimbursements instead.<\/p>\n

Last Sunday, PNRC Chair and Senator Richard Gordon bared that passengers have been complaining about fees asked for Covid-19 tests.<\/p>\n

He said passengers are being diverted to testing booths that charge higher fees because there are entities who take commissions out of these tests.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 Swab testing for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) remains free of charge, Malaca\u00f1ang said Monday following reports that some Filipinos …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":254810,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-273024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273024","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=273024"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273024\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":273025,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273024\/revisions\/273025"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/254810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}