PRI Medical Center vehemently denies the statements of Mr. Geoffrey Santos made in a letter complaint sent to media. It is unfortunate that he decided to discuss the matter before the media instead of sending the letter to PRI and taking it to the proper forum. This should have been discussed privately by the parties.
In accepting the patients from Quezon City – the father and mother of Mr. Santos, his cousin, and their family driver, PRI was dragged into an unnecessary scuffle with the local government of Angeles City which, at one point, even caused the hospital’s actual closure. In admitting the patients, PRI, was merely complying with the circulars of the Department of Health and Philhealth which prohibits hospitals from refusing Covid-19 patients. There was also no agreement with or order from the LGU that only Angeles City residents may be admitted in PRI. Ultimately though, PRI is operated by medical practitioners who adhere to the tenets of the Hippocratic Oath and will treat patients who come to its doorsteps regardless of race, gender, or domicile.
For the past 30 or more days, our hospital workers have toiled non-stop in 12- hour shifts, dicing with death, so to speak. To be slapped with the malicious accusations of Mr. Santos is not only grossly unfair, but also utterly demoralizing. Our first instinct was to ignore the article and just focus all our energy in the treatment of patients, but to be fair to the hospital’s staff, we find it necessary to refute some of the baseless and malicious statements.
Ever since the unfortunate incident involving the mayor of Angeles City against the PRI, triggered apparently after the above-mentioned patients were admitted, no communication from Mr. Santos or any other member of their family occurred, considering that both parents were in grave medical situations at that time.
After the expiration of the father and later, the mother of Mr. Santos, still no family member or Mr. Santos came to assist at all. Not until the hospital bills started to pile up did Mr. Santos communicate to settle partially at first the bills of his late father, by credit card. Then, after much prodding he also paid partially his mother’s hospitalization by cash.
Mr. Santos himself admitted in his letter that he inquired with the Philhealth on April 6, 2020 regarding the news that Philhealth would shoulder the medical expenses of Covid -19 patients. And as stated in his letter, the Philhealth representative informed him that the Philhealth had not released any guidelines for the reimbursement of medical expenses.
With that said, it was necessary for Mr. Santos to pay the hospital or to at least make arrangements for payment, and seek Philhealth reimbursement later for his payments when the guidelines are finally issued. Hence, Mr. Santos was requested to get the hospital bills on April 7, 2020.
Sadly, neither Mr. Santos nor any relative of his came to the hospital to get the hospital bills and claim the ashes of his deceased mother, in the same manner that he did not personally claim the ashes of his deceased father. Mr. Santos, had the ashes of his late father fetched and transported only through the logistics company Transportify.
The ashes of Mr. Santos’ mother were never withheld from him and his family. Dr. Pio Rafael Lim repeatedly reminded Mr. Santos to claim the ashes of his mother from the PRI Chapel, and this is clearly shown by the screen shots of the Viber conversation included by Mr. Santos himself in his letter. Dr. Lim stated in his text message, “xxx. Please also get the ashes of your mom which has been inside my chapel for almost a week”. Relevantly, Mr. Santos has not yet offered to settle the cost of the cremation of his father and mother which PRI was constrained to advance.
Dr. Lim did not write the handwritten letter or note, a photograph of which was included in the letter of Mr. Santos. That letter was clearly not authored by Dr. Lim and the same is someone else’s work.
With respect to the supposed withholding of the death certificates and other relevant documents due to the failure to settle the hospital bills, suffice it to say that under R.A. 9439 and its Implementing Rules, a hospital may refuse to release the relevant documents due to non-payment of hospital bills, unless the document (such as the death certificate) is needed for interment purposes. Since the remains of the Mr. Santos’ deceased parents have already been cremated, the hospital may retain the documents until payment arrangements are made or at least a promissory note is executed.
Be that as it may, a teleconference was held at around 11:30 AM today with officers of the Philhealth regional and central office, and with Mr. Santos.
Basically, Mr. Santos wanted to be reassured that what he had already paid will be reimbursed by Philhealth and he reiterated that some documents be released to him. PRI assured him that the ashes of his mother were not being withheld to begin with and some documents will be released to him in due time as the hospital still to file its claims for Philhealth reimbursements.
With Philhealth officers listening in, PRI was likewise assured that the hospital’s Interim Reimbursements under Philhealth’s Interim Reimbursements Mechanism (IRM) will be released soon because they recognize the fact that PRI took the risk of being a Covid-19 referral hospital. Philhealth also reassured Mr. Santos and PRI that all Philhealth claims will be processed expeditiously.
The air has been cleared between the parties and we are all moving forward and focused on the task on hand, which is to defeat Covid-19 and care for all those affected by the virus.
In the spirit of fairness, we hope that this statement would merit the same space on your newspaper.
ATTY. ALLAN M. DELA CRUZ
Spokesperson and Legal Counsel PRI MEDICAL CENTER
