News
Health Insurance Coverage for Poor Families in NCR - May 2, 2008
FIVE hundred less privileged families from various parts of the National Capital Region were recently named grantees of health insurance coverage under the Sponsored Program of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth), through a partnership between the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and Smart Communications, Inc.
These families are among the very first to receive the Unified Multi-Purpose Identification (UMID) Card, which will serve as their passport to quality medical care services in PhilHealth-accredited hospitals nationwide.
The UMID is a smart card enabled by a chip that contains the members' biometrics. This will facilitate eligibility checking at the hospital level, to ensure hassle-free availment of PhilHealth benefits. Initially, the use of this card will be tested in three government hospitals in the NCR, namely, Jose Reyes Medical Center, Quirino Memorial Medical Center and East Avenue Medical Center. Right now, PhilHealth is preparing the systems infrastructure requirements for these hospitals so that the innovation can be tested in the soonest time possible. Eventually, more hospitals will be having this facility as well.
Qualified members of the enrolled families may start availing themselves of PhilHealth benefits from today until April 30, 2009 through any of the 1,576 hospitals and more than 21,000 medical professionals accredited by PhilHealth all over the country.
PhilHealth is also exploring the possibility of making the UMID card a primary ID to be recognized by its partner-accredited collecting banks such as the Land Bank of the Philippines for encashment of cheques pertaining to PhilHealth refunds. (END)