THREE thousand representatives of employers from the Southern part of the National Capital Region recently trooped to Hotel Jen to register and learn more about the electronic system introduced by the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) to make premium remittance and reporting more convenient.

According to Dr. Bernadette Lico, OIC-Branch Manager of PhilHealth NCR-South, the first-ever, on-site registration for the Electronic Premium Remittance System (EPRS) was organized to reach out to employers and to assist them so that they can comply with the mandated EPRS policy. Since most companies in the NCR are based in the areas covered by the NCR South Branch, she plans to “conduct simultaneous EPRS on-site registration to connect with more employers.”

The activity was primarily organized for private and government employers whose offices are located in the cities of Makati, Las Piñas, Parañaque, Pasig, and Taguig, and the municipality of Pateros.

Employer representatives were given a brief orientation on EPRS and were guided on the registration and activation of the system. They also updated their employee lists.

The EPRS is an online platform designed to ease PhilHealth transactions of employers by removing the manual system of updating employee list, and enabling online premium remittance and reporting of employee contributions. The PhilHealth mandated all government and private employers to be EPRS-compliant since 2015 per PhilHealth Circular No. 004-2015.

“Magandang initiative ng PhilHealth (ang EPRS on-site registration) lalo na sa amin na nagha-handle ng multi-clients. We are handling 700 clients as of the moment. Iba-iba ang head count, may 400 employees pero meron din kaming client na may 7,000 employees. Nakita ko ang advantages ng EPRS. No need for CF1, Member Data Record or proof of PhilHealth contributions if in case the employees got hospitalized,” said Jay Archie Morales, HR Supervisor of Business Process Outsourcing International Inc. (BPOI).

“With EPRS, mabilis at hassle free ang PhilHealth transactions,” added John Rey Sadsad, also from BPOI.

Just recently, PhilHealth issued Circular 2016-008 requiring all employers to present the Statement of Premium Account (SPA) to the accredited collecting agents before their premium payments can be accepted. The SPA can only be generated by the employers through their own EPRS accounts. It also replaces the PhilHealth Premium Payment Slip (PPPS) for employer contributions. (END) (Pinky G. Aragones)