In a press conference held over the weekend, the TPH Doctors Association led by their spokesperson Dr. Antonita Depano said “we are against the most powerful man in the province, but this is not about money but about principles”.
Depano noted that under the law (Republic Act 10606), 30 percent of PhilHealth payments are supposed to go to professional fees of doctors and non- medical staff.
“Now, Yap will only give us (doctors) one percent and another one percent for the non-medical TPH personnel while the 28 percent of the 30 percent PhilHealth payments will be managed and used by the provincial government,” she claimed.
Depano noted that under the law, the rest of the 70 percent payment are paid through the local government units for hospitals to cover operating maintenance, medicines, use of facilities, and administrative cost.
In private hospitals, the 30 percent professional fee goes directly to the doctors.
“In our case, the 30 percent PhilHealth pooled professional fees is divided between the doctors and the non-medical staff groups as incentives. Half of this 30 percent goes to doctors while the other half is divided among all the non-medical personnel.
And this is in accordance with the law which established the PhilHealth as universal health care provider of the country,” said Depano who heads the TPH department of anesthesiology.
She said that in 2014, PhilHealth paid the TPH, through the provincial government, a total of P800 million for the hospitalization of Phil- Health-covered patients at the TPH. Thirty percent or about P240 million was divided between the doctors and the non-medical employees.
This, even as Dr. Myra Villaroman, an obstetrician- gynecologist that “18 of us contractual consultant doctors were not renewed for opposing the new policy of the governor”.
The TPH Doctors Association members who aired their grievance during the press conference also included Dr. Yamami Chan, Dr. Harriet Sulit, Dr. Prospero Ong and Dr. Christina Pascual who were all contractual consultant doctors.
“Most of us contractual consultant doctors received only P6,000 per month for serving at the TPH and it is only the PhilHealth incentives which subsidize the needs of our families”, said Villaroman.
Indigent patients
In a press statement, however, Yap said he intended to use the Phil-Health payments to “augment the medical budget for the indigent patients of the province”.
“Part of the Phil-Health share will be the stop-gap measure for (the) poor Tarlaquenos”, said Yap.
But Depano said “We want the mandatory 30 percent PhilHealth incentive to be retained for us (doctors) and for the non-medical staff of the TPH because this is what the law says.”
“We will continue our protest against this policy (of Yap)”, Depano stressed.
The doctors’ group legal counsel Luis Lokin Jr, said the doctors have filed a Petition for Declaratory Relief at the Manila Regional Court “praying for a court order ordering the PhilHealth and the Gov. Yap to maintain the payment of the Phil- Health funds to the doctors and to the non-medical staff (of the TPH)”.
“The law is clear, under the Local Government Code, all public hospitals like TPH are run and managed by the LGU. But the local government have no right to use for other purposes the funds from the Phil- Health paid as pooled professional fees of the public doctors. The funds come from the Phil-Health and with a specific purpose, it cannot be juggled by the LGU”, said Lokin.
