“We are providing media with phone numbers they can call so we can directly direct them to hospitals that cater to their health needs as well as those of their dependents,” announced Walter Bacarreza, Phil- Health vice president for the region, at his agency’s “Pasasalamat sa Media” event at the Royce Hotel and Casino here.
Bacarreza noted that ordinarily, PhilHealth benefi ciaries go to health centers which refer them to appropriate hospitals for more serious cases.
“What we want is a red carpet for media folk initially in Central Luzon, so that they could just call us directly so we can arrange for their direct accommodation in hospitals.
This is an experimental program that we could eventually adopt permanently, “ he said.
This, even as Bacarreza admitted criticisms that PhilHealth has been slow in paying hospitals accommodating Phil- Health insurance benefits. He said, however, that new measures have already been adopted to solve this problem and that the effects of such measures are expected to be realized this year.
Pampanga hailed
He also lauded Pampanga for outdoing other Central Luzon provinces in the number of accommodating PhilHealth benefi ciaries.
“In Pampanga, about 98 percent of poor folk who are hospitalized no longer pay anything under the PhilHealth program,” he noted.
PhilHealth record also indicated that a birthing station in Barangay San Jose in the City of San Fernando, Bacarreza Pampanga was granted some P3.8 million last year for its implementation of maternal care package benefi ts to local folk. Also in the city, another birthing station in Barangay San Nicolas also received P3.6 million for the same maternal program.
