Upon the invitation of Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Sonny Coloma, the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) graced the recent Communication and News Exchange (CNEX) Forum at the Philippine Information Agency in Quezon City.
In his speech before the media, PhilHealth President and Chief Executive Officer Dr. Rey B. Aquino announced recent developments in the areas of membership expansion and benefit enhancements as well as the details of the second PhilHealth Sabado, a nationwide registration event that first made news in October last year with over 260,000 new and existing members from different parts of the country served in a day's time.
Aquino said that PhilHealth already adopted the National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction of the Department of Social Welfare and Development as a targeting tool for their Sponsored Program, saying that the NHTS has virtually freed PhilHealth from the challenges that come with identifying who truly deserves a PhilHealth card.
"Sa NHTS-PR, lalong matitiyak na ang mapagkakalooban ng PhilHealth cards ay iyon lamang totoong walang kakayanang magbayad para sa kanilang health insurance" he explained.
Using the NHTS-PR as basis, Aquino has instructed all PhilHealth regional offices to fasttrack the issuance of cards to about 5.2 million indigents nationwide before the end of June this year. He also thanked President Aquino for prioritizing PhilHealth in his health agenda with the immediate release of P3 billion and another half a billion pesos for the enlistment of informal sector members into the Sponsored Program.
The PhilHealth Chief also announced the upcoming enhancement in benefits wherein Sponsored Members shall no longer pay for anything once confined for any of the 22 medical and surgical cases that they will soon pay through the case rate scheme.
With the "no balance billing policy", the case rate payments will be applicable to accredited government hospitals. He said that they will submit the final draft of guidelines pertaining to the case rate payments to the PhilHealth Board for approval.
The CNEX is a joint undertaking of the PCOO and PIA to effectively communicate to the public the good news about various government programs. It is attended by government and private media organizations and aired live via Talking Points over NBN Channel 4 and Radyo ng Bayan stations nationwide. END
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