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3K Health Care Facilities Now Accredited with PhilHealth - February 2, 2006

ALMOST 3,000 institutional health care providers are now accredited with the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth), ensuring more avenues through which health insurance benefits may be availed of by its 54 million members nationwide.

In a pre-11th Anniversary media briefing held at the Annabel’s Restaurant recently, Lorna O. Fajardo, Officer-in-charge of the Office of the PhilHealth President and CEO said that at least 1,564 hospitals or about 91 percent of the total number of hospitals in the country today, are already accredited with PhilHealth. "This means that there are now more health care facilities through which our members may avail themselves of their PhilHealth privileges," she said.

Fajardo added that about 882 rural health units in various parts of the archipelago are similarly accredited, providing out-patient diagnostic benefits to members under the Sponsored Program. These benefits include screening for cervical cancer, digital rectal exam, counseling for lifestyle modification, complete blood count, urinalysis, fecalysis, sputum microscopy, among others.

"We have also accredited 98 maternity clinics through which our members may avail themselves of our Normal Spontaneous Delivery Package and other maternity-related benefits," she reported. On the other hand, 108 TB-DOTS Centers have been accredited to provide short-course treatment for tuberculosis patients, while 17 free standing dialysis centers have been accredited for patients with peritoneal and hemodialysis requirements. Some 27 ambulatory surgical clinics are similarly accredited for members’ surgical needs which PhilHealth compensates for.

"We continue to expand our service delivery network but we also make sure that we forge ties only with those facilities that provide high-quality medical care services for the benefit of our members," Fajardo emphasized. "Through accreditation, we are able to guarantee our members that the highest quality of medical service is given them, whenever and wherever they may need these most."

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