Four (4) offices of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) in Region VIII were recently conferred with the Seal of Excellence Award (SEA) by the Civil Service Commission (CSC) in ceremonies held at the Concourse Convention Center in Legazpi City.
Among the awardee-offices were Calbayog Business Center, and the Local Health Insurance Offices in Catbalogan, Borongan and Maasin. The SEA is given to government offices providing exceptional customer service to walk-in clients.
The selection process was rigorous. The CSC initially surveyed more than 300 government offices in Eastern Visayas to include local government units. Of this number, only 12 were rated “excellent” and seven (7) of these were PhilHealth offices. This distinction earned for former PhilHealth VIII Regional Vice President Walter R. Bacareza the “ARTA Czar” Award back in 2015.
The 12 offices underwent a re-validation process in 2016 by CSC validators from other regions. On its final validation, only four (4) offices in Eastern Visayas emerged as deserving of the coveted SEA.
The government agencies were rated as to the quality, efficiency and adequacy of their frontline services. This included their compliance to the Anti-Red Tape provisions to include among others, the no noon break policy, anti-fixing campaign, public assistance and complaints desk, IDs for frontline officers and transparency in the costs of transactions.
Another core area is the overall client satisfaction which covers the knowledge, competence, timeliness and overall conduct of frontline officers as well as the physical set-up and basic facilities of the office. Also part of the provision of excellent customer service is the strengthened implementation of the feedback mechanism to effectively address queries and complaints from clients.
Each of the four (4) PhilHealth Offices received a wall-mountable glass plaque and a cash prize depending on the number of stars indicated in their award. PhilHealth Calbayog with the highest rating of five (5) stars received P100,000. PhilHealth Borongan and Maasin with four (4) stars received P25,000 each and the 3 stars of PhilHealth Catbalogan had no cash equivalent.
OIC Regional Vice President Renato L. Limsiaco, Jr. said that “provision of excellent customer service is a continuous process and PhilHealth employees must practice it every single day.” He even coined the customer service slogan of “customers’ delight is our business.” (END) (Miramar P. Zabala)
Reference: Dr. Israel Francis A. Pargas PhilHealth Official Spokesperson OIC-Vice President for Corporate Affairs Group Tel. (02) 441-7444 ext. 7587