BY CHARIZZA ATIENZA
House Deputy Majority Leader and Bagong Henerasyon partylist Rep. Bernadette Herrera urged Sunday members of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) who personally paid for their COVID-19 swab tests to file their reimbursement claims.
He said PhilHealth’s testing benefit package worth up to P3,409 could be availed of by certain members of PhilHealth as provided for under the guidelines issued by the Department of Health (DoH).
“There is a PhilHealth circular that allows members who are eligible for testing to file reimbursement claims for COVID-19 Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test, but unfortunately the public is not fully aware of this benefit,” she said, referring to PhilHealth Circular No. 2020-0017.
The PhilHealth circular provides that all at-risk individuals mentioned in the DoH guidelines such as health care workers, senior citizens, returning overseas Filipino workers, and even media workers are entitled to COVID-19 testing benefit package.
Under the circular, members may be reimbursed the amount not exceeding the corresponding benefit for COVID-19 test if such benefit was not availed of or was not deducted from the actual charges, provided the requirements are complied with, Herrera noted.
“I urge all qualified PhilHealth members, who have personally paid for their COVID-19 tests, to directly file their reimbursement claims with PhilHealth to prevent unscrupulous private hospitals and testing centers from pocketing these funds by claiming the benefit on behalf ofPhilHealth members,” she added.
Herrera said she received complaints that some hospitals and laboratories asked some PhilHealth members to provide their identification numbers for reimbursement of COVID-19 tests that they paid out of their own pocket.
She bared that her family, including his brother and sister-in-law, personally encountered such incident that prompted her to look into the matter.
“Mismong ipinag-utos ng Pangulo ang paglalaan ng pondo para sa libreng COVID testing ng mga tao, kung kaya siguradong hindi niya magugustuhan sakaling malaman n’ya ang nangyayari ngayon sa nasabing pondo,” Herrera warned. (Charizza Atienza)
