PhilHealth
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PhilHealth Conducts Partners Forum January 29, 2020
The Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) recently held the Partners Forum to present to its local and development/foreign partners the various technical assistance needed to transition to an organization that is fit to implement the Universal Health Care (UHC) Law. The event is one of the strategies of PhilHealth on resource mobilization to enhance its capability to strengthen social health insurance in the country.
Earlier, PhilHealth issued guidelines on a working framework in gearing up for UHC, Themed "Setting the GEARS of Healthcare Financing", the plans and targets of the Corporation are anchored on Good Governance, Essential Benefits, All Filipinos are Covered, Responsive Healthcare System, and Stronger Anti-Fraud Mechanism, hence the acronym GEARS. The 21 technical assistance requirements identified by the various offices within PhilHealth were categorized under each component of GEARS. Among the technical assistance in the agenda are: Hiring of Human Resource/Organizational Development (HR/OD) Firm to Review Organizational Structure of the Corporation and to Determine Alignment with the Universal Health Care (UHC) Act; Development of a Benefit Plan for the Philippines Health Care System; Institutionalization of the PhilHealth Costing Framework and Data Collection Tools; Membership Management: Contribution Compliance Strategies; Consultancy in Managing of the Social Media Accounts of PhilHealth; Development of Contracting Standards for Health Care Provider Network (HCPN); and Provider Quality Improvement.
In his welcome remarks, Acting Senior Manager of the International and Local Engagement Department (ILED) Atty. Recto Panti mentioned that "The Philippine Universal Health Care Program is a child who needs all the support to ensure an effective rearing and robust growth. Not only is it a child that promises to be a well-rounded and all-encompassing provider of hope and health security, but more than that, it promises to be a compassionate and responsive program to us Filipinos."
Meanwhile, PhilHealth President and CEO Ricardo C. Morales said in his message delivered by Dr. Clementine Bautista, VP of Quality Assurance Group. "Rolling out Universal Health Care is not going to be an easy task. The eyes of one hundred million Filipinos will be on PhilHealth and its ability to protect every Filipino from catastrophic health expenditure...there are many opportunities where PhilHealth can partner with development institutions towards Universal Health Care. Exciting times are upon us in the era of Universal Health Care for every Juan and Juana."
For her part, Corporate Affairs Vice President Shirley Domingo shared "GEARing up for UHC: Setting the GEARS of Healthcare Financing through a progressive implementation of UHC to further manage the fund as efficiently as possible."
Among the development partners present were from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), The World Bank (WB), Think Well, United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Office Health and Project Teams and World Health Organization (WHO). Local partners that support PhilHealth advocacies and communication plan such as CitizenWatch Ph, Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA), Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA), Metropolitan Development Authority (MMDA), SmartStart, TV 5 Alaagang Kapatid Foundation, Inc., and Vitel 365 were also present.
The forum was then followed by the Pasasalamat sa Partners as a way for PhilHealth to express its gratitude to these same partners who, through the years, have helped advance the National Health Insurance Program. These partnerships have helped PhilHealth enhance the learning process of its workforce, improve leadership, management and capacity of the organization, as well as its businesses processes.
In response, Dr. Albert Domingo of the WHO, said that "PhilHealth needs GEARS (to set the program) in motion, but what do gears need to stir it to action? Yes, OIL! so what does OIL means? O for organized performance and delivery. Never before has PhilHealth set on something so big such that it has now organized itself to prepare on how it could perform and deliver on the results. What is I? For you to deliver in an organized fashion the performance and delivery, you need Information and evidence. It must have a readily accessible information. L for leadership and governance - it's not so much about speeches about national events but the day to day routine, the day to day boring but essential routine of implementation, making sure that what needs to be done is done... no flashy things... Let us not forget the Leadership and governance." (END)
