PhilHealth says it will pay Red Cross P265M this week

PhilHealth vowed to pay P265 million of the P800-M debt to Philippine Red Cross (PRC) for COVID-19 RT-PCR tests.

PhilHealth spokesperson Rey Balena assured this as he answers questions concerning the state insurer’s failure to pay its dues while it has a reserve fund of P137 billion.

“We are preparing a payment of P112 million and we are rushing another batch. It would be a total of P265 million of payment for this week,” Balena said in an ANC interview.

However, Balena clarified that PhilHealth’s inability to pay Red Cross on time is not due to a lack of budget but because of “due diligence.”

“This is not an issue of reserve fund. We have to look into each claim of Red Cross. We owe it to our members to be prudent,” Balena pointed out.

“There are claims that are deficient and had to be returned to Red Cross for compliance,” he added.

The PhilHealth spokesperson said deficient Red Cross claims is at P103.4 million.

“We found some claims with no middle names, with foreign-sounding names, with special characters that will have to be returned to PhilHealth for correction,” he said.

PhilHealth says it will pay Red Cross P265M this week

Earlier, Balena said the postponement of the 3.5% increase of its members’ contribution would cost the state insurer P13 billion.

“If we will push through with the premium adjustment, we will have additional P13 billion income from our direct contributors,” he said on ANC.

“Our projected income for 2021 is P90 billion, so we will have a P13-billion deficit in this area as far as collection is concerned.”

However, Balena said the public would be assured that PhilHealth has sufficient funds to implement the Universal Health Care law despite the deferment of contribution increase.

“PhilHealth is still liquid. We have a reserve fund to weather the situation,” he said, adding the state health insurer has a reserve fund worth P137 billion.

“We will proceed with our programs, definitely,” he added.

Balena also expressed confidence that Duterte and his allies in Congress would fulfill their promise to give PhilHealth an additional budget for the UHC implementation.