THE Philippine Health Insurance Corporation recently conducted back-to-back Social Health Insurance Education Series (SHInES) at the El Cielito Hotel in Sta. Rosa, Laguna for the benefit of the local media and Local Chief Executives (LCEs) of various municipalities in the province.

“It’s good to empower the media to make them PhilHealth advocates for our members to have correct and timely information regarding their program whenever possible,” said Dr. Shirley B. Domingo, PhilHealth’s Vice President for Area II which covers Lucena, Laguna, Cavite and Quezon province.

At least 20 media practitioners and information officers from several media outfits and government offices in the provinces of Quezon and Laguna attended the activity.

The SHInES for Media was immediately followed by the SHInES for LCEs of the different municipalities of the province led by Mayor Ronald Sana of Mabitac and Mayor Remona Muramatsu of Famy. Also present were representatives from Nagcarlan, Paete, Pakil, Pagsanjan, Pangil, Pila, Rizal, San Pablo City, San Pedro, Siniloan, Sta. Rosa, Victoria, Majayjay, Magdalena, Liliw, Cabuyao, Los Baños, Lusiana, Biñan, Baet, and Alaminos.

Alberto C. Manduriao, OIC-Vice President for Member Management Group discussed the Membership Program, while Dr. Jennifer Raca, OIC-Senior Manager and Dr. Marvin Galvez, Medical Specialist III of the Benefits Development and Research Department presented the New and Enhanced PhilHealth Benefits. Vergil De Claro, OIC-Division Chief of Corporate Planning Department talked about the National Health Insurance Act of 2013 while Dr. Edwin Oriña, Regional Vice President of PhilHealth Regional Office IV-A tackled the important role of the LCEs in support to the NHIP. Amelita Buted, OIC-Division Chief of the Corporate Communication Department discussed the role of media in advocating the NHIP.

In his message, PhilHealth President and CEO Alexander A. Padilla said that the activity is very important for PhilHealth to discuss the needs of the LCEs in their respective localities “We wish to really have good working relationships with you (LCEs) because we also want to provide better service to your constituents,” Padilla said.

Questions raised during a two-day activity touched on double membership, enrollment under the National Household Targeting System (NHTS), enrollment of senior citizens who are not included in the NHTS, inclusion of barangay volunteers such as bantay bayan and day care workers in PhilHealth coverage, frequency of availment of benefits by dependents, package inclusion for subdermal implants and availment of benefits for senior citizens who are not yet registered with PhilHealth under RA 10645. (END) (Faudia H. Subillaga)